Harry Potter and the Book of Homunculus
by Blank402
Summary: 6th Year AU. With the power of the snakes and the will to protect his friends fueling him, Harry will go against all odds to fight a war that he shouldn't have to fight. As one generation fades away, another rises up to fight the darkness.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary:** The Slytherins are causing trouble in Hogwarts and Harry and the DA must stop them before things get out of hand. Voldemort gains power and seeks an item that would help him raise an unstopable army. Instead of helping, the Ministry makes all the wrong moves and puts the magical world in an even worse position than before. As Harry trains to fulfill the prophecy he discovers an old type of magic deep within him that hasn't been seen since the age of the Founders. New friends, new enemies, and old enemies with new tricks. Harry is in for an _interesting_ Sixth Year.

**Disclaimer: **If you recognize it from any of the books JKR has written then it belongs to her and her publishers.

**Chapter One:****Ordinary Life?**

There are many words that can be used to describe Privet Drive. Many of the homeowners would call it perfection, many of their children would call it boring. But, if one were to try and describe Privet Drive most accurately the best word to use would be ordinary. The houses were your ordinary square two-story houses, each with its own modest garden that had been kept in shape by the women of the house while their husbands were away at work. The cars were just as ordinary as the houses, average four door sedans and minivans were all you would find as you went up and down the driveways of these streets. But, despite what it may seem, this street of normality did contain on house that was _very _extraordinary.

The house was Number 4 and despite what the owners of the house would like you to think their house wasn't special because it had won 'Best Garden in all of Little Whinging', nor did it have anything to do with the fabulous job the mother of the house did keeping it neat and clean. No, the extraordinary thing in the house was something that the owners would have you believe didn't exist, and if they had their way it probably wouldn't. This extraordinary 'thing' was a fifteen-year-old boy by the name of Harry James Potter.

To most people Harry would look like your average fifteen year old. He was a little small for his age, he had an unruly mass of black hair, which many people said he he had gotten from his father, and emerald green eyes that had definitely been passed down from his mother. All in all he was quite average looking. But, he had one defining feature that stood out amongst the overall plainness: a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. That scar was one of the things that made him one of the most extraordinary people in the entire world. Because that scar was no ordinary scar. No, he received that scar when he survived a curse from a dark wizard, a curse that had killed countless before him and still continued to kill others to this day. And he survived this curse while only a baby.

The man who had given Harry the curse scar on his head was none other than the Dark Lord Voldemort. Voldemort had killed Harry's parents and had tried to kill him too, but due to the protective magic evoked by his mother he was able to survive while the curse rebounded and reduced Voldemort to nothing more than a ghost of his former self. Voldemort didn't stay gone long though, he had managed to find many ways to keep himself alive and had eventually retuned to his body in Harry's fourth year at school killing one of Harry's school mates in the process.

Ever since he had learned about magic and Hogwarts he had always wondered why Voldemort had targeted him and his parents. He had always assumed that it had just been a random act of violence-he had been wrong. It had taken Harry five years to find out why his parents had been killed by Voldemort, and what he found out hadn't been what he had expected. There had been a prophecy, a prophecy that said that it would be his job and his job alone to destroy the dark lord Voldemort because if he didn't kill Voldemort, Voldemort would kill him. All this information had been kept from him until just a few weeks ago when he found out that the person he trusted most in this world, Professor Albus Dumbledore, had purposely withheld this information from him. Needless to say, Harry now felt as if he could no longer trust the man.

He was the hero of the Wizarding world and he was destined by fate to save it again or die trying. He lived in the smallest least furnished room of his aunt and uncles house and at the moment he did nothing more than lay on his bed and stare listlessly at the ceiling of his small room, doing what he hated doing the most, thinking. Every time he had free time on his hands, which was often now, he would always end up lost in his thoughts and his thoughts always ended up being about things no fifteen year old boy should have to worry about. He thought of many things, of prophecies and dark lords and of secret Orders and death. Death. Death was the thought that was most common in his mind, specifically the death of his dear godfather Sirius. Sirius had died trying to protect Harry and his friends, and even though everyone told him otherwise, Harry _knew_ it was his fault that Sirius was dead. That thought tormented his very soul at times and made him wish he could turn back the clock and not go on an idiotic mission that had gotten many injured and killed his godfather.

Luckily, Harry's mournful thoughts were interrupted by the thumping of feet coming up the stairs. The feet stopped outside his door and then there was a banging knock accompanied by the loud voice of his Uncle Vernon.

"Boy," the large man barked through the door, "it's time for lunch."

Harry sighed. The threats of the Order of the Phoenix had made his relatives act more civil toward him than they ever had in his fifteen years of living here, but that still didn't mean he liked spending anytime with them. Still, he hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, nor had he eaten dinner the night before and he was getting rather hungry. And so, with the promise of food on the line, Harry decided to get out of bed and deal with the presence of his relative long enough to get some food in him. He stretched his limbs and made the short walk to the door, hoping that this day would be just as uneventful as the last week of summer had been.

Unfortunately, Fate had some _very _eventful plans for him that evening.

* * *

Not for the first time during his summer, Harry was doing absolutely nothing, except this time he was being forced to do nothing outside in the backyard. After an uneventful lunch with his aunt and uncle (Dudley was at his mates house 'having tea') Uncle Vernon had announced that he was going to the market to pick up a few things. That, of course, had nothing to do with Harry, who had been planning on going into his room and doing nothing like he had been doing all summer. Unfortunately Harry's exciting plans for the afternoon were interrupted before his head could even hit his thin pillow.

"_You've been doing nothing but lying in your room ever since you got back home and I'm getting tired of it," his Aunt Petunia had said in that shrill voice of hers, "I don't care what you do as long as you get out of the house. God knows you could maybe even lift an ungrateful finger every once in a while and help with the housework."_

Harry had felt like telling her off right then, asking her why she never got on to Dudley like that or mention the fact that before this summer he had done more housework around here than all of the Dursley combined. But, not having the energy for a fight, he had just decided to go out for a walk. He hadn't really had a plan on doing anything specific so he had just decided to go to the park and stay there long enough to please his aunt. His plans were cut short, however, when he reached the park and saw that Dudley and his gang had decided that the park would be their new hangout. Harry knew that unless he wanted to get into a fight with Dudley and his gang he should just avoid the park. So, without anywhere else to go he headed back toward Number 4. Knowing that going back into the house would result in him getting yelled at, Harry had decided to go and spend sometime in the backyard.

The fresh air from outside had done nothing to ease his mind and he was once again lost in his thoughts. Fortunately though his thoughts were of the living this time and not of the dead. He was thinking about his friends, mainly Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had become friends in their first year and had been practically inseparable since. Sure, they had the occasional fight, but all friends did at one point or another. At the moment Harry sorely missed them and wished he could talk to them in person. They had both sent him letters at the beginning of the summer, just the usual 'how are you doing' 'are you okay' 'can't talk about much'. He didn't really like the idea of communicating with them through owl post, as he knew anything he really wanted to talk about would most likely be deemed unsafe for owl post and he would just have a repeat of last year.

A noise to his left suddenly caught Harry's attention, he turned and saw a small green garden snake slither by. _Aunt Petunia would freak out if she saw that thing slithering around in her garden, _Harry couldn't help but think. And it was that thought that made him decide to just leave the snake alone. Unfortunately the snake wasn't going to be leaving Harry alone anytime soon.

"Master? Is that you?" the snake said, startling Harry. He looked around to make sure no one was around before answering the snake.

"Um, what?" was all Harry could manage to say. The snake had called him Master, but Harry had never owned a snake and he was pretty sure no one on Privet Drive owned a snake. Harry was a bit cautious.

"Ah Master, that is you," the Snake said in a delighted tone, "I've been looking for you." It began to slither toward Harry, causing him to stand up to avoid it. Harry knew that he was probably being a little _too_ cautious but he couldn't help but think of the imposter Mad-Eye Moody from his Fourth Year: _CONSTANT VIGILANCE_! For all he knew this snake could be an Animagus or belong to one of his enemies.

"Master, what's wrong with you?" the snake asked in an aggravated tone, if that was even possible for a snake.

"Look, I think you've got me confused with someone else," Harry began to walk away, deciding it would be best to avoid this unknown snake, "So, uh, good luck finding your master or whatever." With that he hurriedly walked away. As he made his way back to the door he could hear the snake calling after him, but he chose to ignore it; he also didn't notice the figure that had been watching him out the window.

As he entered the house he planned on going straight to his bedroom. His Aunt Petunia had different plans for him at that moment.

"Boy," she said in her shrill voice, startling Harry, "Just what do you think you're doing out there?" Harry tried to open his mouth to answer her question, but she cut him off.

"Don't even try and give me any of your excuses because I saw you out there," she continued, this time moving away from the window so the neighbors wouldn't suspect that there was a problem in 'Perfect' Petunias house. "I will not have you parading your unnaturalness around, especially in my own backyard." _Damn,_ Harry thought, _she must have seen me talking to that snake._

"Look, A-," Harry began in his own defense.

"I will not have any of it!" she said, cutting him off, "Now, you go up to your room right now before I kick you out and let your freaky friends deal with you." Harry did as he was told, not wishing to get into an argument. It didn't matter much to him anyway as he had been planning on going up into his room in the first place. He also knew that her threat to kick him out was empty, she had apparently made some promise to Dumbledore that she wouldn't kick him out.

As he entered his room his beautiful owl Hedwig gave him a hoot of greeting. "Hey girl," he murmured, walking over to her cage and stroking her feathers. His aunt and uncle had given him permission to let her out of her cage anytime she wanted, but she still spent most of her time in his room. Harry suspected that somehow Hedwig knew he needed someone to be there for him and had decided to stay with him instead of going outside. He knew it was a crazy idea, but he always thought of Hedwig as more than any average owl and she _was_ really his only friend in the entire house. As he stood petting his owl Harry took a look through his window that faced the backyard. It was then that something caught his eye, something that confused and scared him all the same.

The Snake was outside waiting for him.

* * *

Laughter from the dining room echoed up into Harry's small upstairs bedroom. His cousin, Dudley, had decided to bring over his girlfriend for dinner and Harry had been sent to his room with a plate of food (which he hadn't eaten yet) so that he wouldn't ruin 'Diddy Dunkins special night'. Harry could care less that they had threw him up into his room and pretended he didn't exist. Truthfully, he didn't want to eat dinner with them anyway. He had only seen Dudley's girlfriend once and she had looked nice enough, but he knew that if she had any kind of romantic interest in his large cousin then there was most definitely something wrong with her.

Another chorus of laughter echoed throughout the house and Harry had to cover his ears to block out Petunias high pitched, horse-like laughter. For the first time all summer Harry was starting to get bored of his hobby of doing nothing. It didn't help that ever other second a round of annoyingly fake laughter came from downstairs, making him want to cast a Deafening Curse on his own ears. But, it was strange that after a week of doing nothing it was now that he needed to get out of the house.

Taking a look out his window (the snake had disappeared a while ago) Harry saw that there were still some daylight left outside. It was nearing sunset, but he still had about thirty minutes left until then. He contemplated whether or not going outside would be a good idea. After all, last year when he had gone out after dark he had been attacked by Dementors, foul soul-sucking creatures. Although, when he thought about it, that had been the fault of the person who was supposed to be watching him, Mundungus Fletcher. As Harry continued to think, another round of laughter assaulted his ears, this time Vernon's loud guffaw made the entire house shake. Being incredibly bored and not being able to withstand the obnoxious laughter of his relatives, Harry slipped on his shoes and made his way to his door. He opened the door and slipped out as silently as he could, giving Hedwig a brief farewell and forgetting a _very_ important item as he left his room.

He made his way silently down the stairs and made sure to be careful as he snuck past the dining room. As he passed the dining room he could hear Dudley telling an exaggerated boxing story, the same one he had been telling all week. It didn't take long for Harry to reach the front door and soon he was outside. Once outside Harry took a few minutes to think about where he was going. It was a useless to really consider going anywhere, as there was nowhere to go. So, Harry began the familiar walk to the nearby park. As he walked he had the strange feeling that he was being followed. He knew he shouldn't worry since it was most likely just an Order member, but it was still a felling that made him very uncomfortable.

It didn't take him long to get to the park and when he did he went towards the back of it, to a familiar swing set. He remembered using this swing set often when he was actually allowed to come to the park as a child. While Dudley and all of his friends had been allowed to use all the new playground equipment, Harry had been sent to the older part of the park in the very back and forced to use the older equipment. He shook his head to try and get all the bad memories out of his head. He had come outside to find something to do other than think, but it seemed he would never be able to get rid of his painful thoughts while he was around here. Harry let out a depressed sigh and jumped off his swing planning on going back to Number 4.

Unfortunately, Fate had decided that Harry Potter would have different plans on that night.

A noise to his left caught his attention and he turned to see a dark robed figure walking toward him. Harry was immediately defensive, this mans figure practically screamed 'Dark Wizard'. His ice cold eyes held a look of maliciousness in them, his head was bald and his face was covered in scars that spoke of many battles.

"Whose there?" Harry asked, reaching into his back pocket a to get out his wand only to find it empty. His eyes widened at this revelation. If things were to get ugly he would be defenseless against this grown man.

"Ello there Mister Potter," the man said, his voice rough and harsh. He continued to walk towards Harry, who began to take slow steps back.

"Who are you?" Harry demanded with much more confidence than a wizard without a wand should have when confronted by an enemy. The man let out a harsh chuckle in response to Harry's question.

"Me? Well, I guess you could call me a friend of a friend." the man took another step forward and Harry was forced to take another step back. Although such a vague answer could have many meanings, Harry knew that it most likely meant that this man was Voldemorts subordinate. Harry looked around hoping to see the Order coming to his aid, his hopes were smashed when all he saw was an empty park.

"Looking for you friends?" the man asked, obviously seeing Harry hopeful look around, "Don't get you hopes up kid, I took care of them." Harry stood frozen in his spot. He was facing a man who obviously meant him harm, he was defenseless, and his backup was nonexistent. Things didn't get much worse than that. He quickly turned on his heel and began to run. Unfortunately his plans were cut short as a painful blow to the head knocked him off his feet.

"Didn't think I would let you get away that easily, did you?" the man laughed and dusted off his knuckles, "oh no, you're much too valuable for that." The man began to search his pockets inside his robe for something, but Harry didn't plan on giving him enough time to find it. Grabbing a bit of loose dirt from the ground, Harry tried to get the mans attention.

"Hey," Harry said, succeeding in getting the mans attention. As soon as the man looked down at him, Harry hurled the dirt directly in his face. The man howled with pain and stumbled back away from Harry, who had immediately taken action and dashed forward, running as fast as his skinny legs would allow him. He hadn't made it very far before a spell came dangerously close to hitting him in the head. He took a look back in time to see another spell, this one properly aimed, heading right for him. He threw himself on the ground to avoid the spell and had to roll out of the way of another spell to avoid being hit. He pushed himself off the ground and began running again. Then things took a turn for the worse.

He didn't see the next spell coming for him, it slammed right into his left shoulder with the force of a sledgehammer and an audible crack. He fell to the ground holding his now broken shoulder. A look behind him told him that the man was now approaching him and it wouldn't be long before he was upon Harry again. The will to not get caught got Harry back on his feet and moving again, and he began running toward a near by jungle gym. He dodged and weaved in between the playground equipment in hopes of losing his pursuer. Pushing his way past a swing set and hopping over a slide, Harry checked behind him to see that his pursuer was no longer behind him, but while his concentration was elsewhere he forgot to look where he was going and fell to the ground. He began to push himself back up so he could continue running when he heard the approaching footsteps of the man pursuing him.

Looking around for a place to hide, Harry found a nearby playhouse to be his only option if he wanted to get away soon. He dragged himself to the small playhouse and laid down inside, there was nothing inside except a few discarded toys and some old paper. It wasn't long before the footsteps of the man reached Harry's temporary hideout and stopped.

"I know you're 'round here somewhere kid," the harsh voice of the man called out, "Don't think I won't find you, you ain't got many places to hide in. What was that?" The man suddenly whirled around and then took off in the other direction. Harry breathed a sigh of relief and began to crawl to the entrance of his small hideout, then something he didn't expect came into his vision.

The Snake lay at the entrance of the hideout.

"What the---," Harry began, only to be cut off by the snake.

"I have come to help you, my Master," the Snake said, not letting Harry finish his sentence.

"What? Help? How?" Harry said, still not quite over the fact that the Snake had somehow found him, and looked to be the only help that he was going to get.

"Please forgive me for being late master, but I have found the ones who are _supposed _to be protecting you,"

"The Order members? You found them? Where the _hell_ are they?"

"Yess, master, I found them. They are looking for you, but in the wrong place. I tried leading them to you but they did not understand me." Harry remained silent as the snake finished talking. He began to think over the possibilities.

_The Order members are out there, _he thought,_ but they don't know where I am. It's probably too dangerous to go out there and look for them and as the Snake pointed out they aren't parselmouths so he can't get them for me. _Harry's eyes fell on the nearby piece of paper. _That's it! I can send a note with the snake, but wait; I don't have anything to write with._

Harry glanced around the small playhouse trying to find anything to write with but there was nothing. He was about to give up hope on his idea when he looked down at his right hand, specifically he caught sight of the scar on the back of his hand he had gotten when that toad of a woman Umbridge had forced him to right _I must not tell lies_ in his own blood. Blood, it was the only thing around that he could use as ink and he desperately needed to right this note. Harry took his right index finger and placed the tip of it in his mouth and, without waiting, bit down on it. It hurt and Harry was sure the snake had said something about how foolish he was, but it didn't matter to him. He took the piece of paper and awkwardly wrote out a brief message using his own blood.

_Need help. Follow Snake-HP_

He quickly blew on the paper and made sure the blood had dried before folding it up and offering it to the snake.

"Take this to my friends, okay?" Harry instructed the snake. The snake nodded and took the paper in its mouth. As soon as it had the paper it went slithering off at a speed Harry didn't think possible of a snake its size.

It didn't take more than a few minutes for someone to arrive, but the person who did arrive was the one Harry was hiding from. The man who had been chasing Harry suddenly appeared at the door his temporary hideout.

"I've gotcha now kid," the man said with a hint of glee in his voice. He grabbed Harry by his ankle and pulled him out of the hideout forcefully. "Now you're coming with me." He pulled out a small chunk of wood from one of his pockets and looked at Harry with a smirk. In his hands was no ordinary wood, it was a portkey and Harry knew it. Not wanting to be taken by the man Harry defended himself, he raised the leg not gripped by the man a hard kick to the mans knee. The man stumbled back and Harry used the moments advantage to jerk his leg free of the mans grip. The man cursed and pulled out his wand a curse right on the tip of his tongue when he suddenly turned around and threw himself to the ground to avoid a curse sent _his _way from the tall imposing figure of Kingsley Shacklebolt, member of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Damn!" the man cursed again, "it looks like your reinforcements have arrived Potter, I'll see you later." And, with a shout of the word 'Activate!' the man was gone.

"Damn, he got a way," The deep voice of Shacklebolt said. He made his way over to Harry and helped him up. "You all right there Potter?"

Harry shook his head, "No, I think my shoulder is broken."

"Hmm, I'm no good with Healing Magic so you'll have to wait until we get back to HQ to get it looked at"

"HQ?"

"Yeah, now that your position has been compromised we can't let you stay here anymore," Kingsley held out a small metal pipe toward Harry, "grab onto this portkey and we'll get out of here. We'll come back for your possessions later." Harry nodded. He wasn't exactly looking forward to going back to Grimmauld Place, but he was glad to be leaving the Dursleys house. He held out his hand and was about to wrap it around the portkey when he felt something crawl up his leg. Before he could do anything about it his hand clasped around the portkey and he felt familiar tugging behind his navel that came with portkey traveling. His world was soon a spinning blur as he traveled to the Orders HQ.

He was heading back to the Order of the Phoenix's HQ. He was heading back to Grimmauld Place. He was heading back to Sirius' home. Or, at least that's what he thought.

* * *

**Authors Notes:**Well, there goes the first chapter of my first fic. If you liked it go ahead and drop me a review; if you didn't like it, go ahead a drop me a review. For those of you interested, the next chapter should be up in a week or so. I know this chapter was slow, but it will pick up in a couple of chapters.


	2. Chapter 2: HQ

**Disclaimer: **If you recognize it from any of the books then it belongs to JKR and her publishers.

**Chapter 2: HQ**

Harry's world was a spinning blur as he was taken to the Order of the Phoenixes Head Quarters. The spinning didn't last long as he and Shacklebolt soon arrived at their destination, Grimmuald Place. Except it wasn't, wherever they had ended up it definitely wasn't Grimmuald Place. They had arrived in a large circular room with a circular table in the middle that was surrounded by chairs. There were a few portraits on the walls but they remained silent. Harry could easily tell that the room wasn't in Grimmuald Place because of one thing: it was very clean. No matter how hard they had tried to keep Grimmuald Place clean, its cleanest room was no where near as good as this room was.

"Uh, Kingsley," Harry began, "where are we?"

"This is the new HQ," Kingsley replied, heading for the nearby door, "With Kreacher around we didn't know what kind of information he could get his hands on that might be useful to the Death Eaters so we decided to move HQ and Dumbledore offered up this place.

"And where is this place?" Harry asked.

"This is the house of Albus Dumbledore," Kingsley said, opening the door and revealing a narrow staircase that had another door at the bottom. Harry began to follow Kingsley down the stairs and voiced a thought that was on his mind.

"I didn't think Dumbledore had a house," Harry said.

"That's what everyone thinks," Kingsley said as they reached the bottom of the stairs, "he apparently bought this house to _retire_ in." Harry heard the slight emphasis the man added onto the word retire and had to agree with him-Harry could never imagine Albus Dumbledore retiring, it seemed like the elderly man would be working to the day he died.

As they exited the door at the end of the staircase and closed it behind them, Harry heard what sounded like a complicated locking mechanism. He looked back over his shoulder to see what was going on only to see that the door was no longer there. He looked up to Kingsley for an explanation, but found that the man was not going to give him one.

They had ended up in a hallway that had doors on all sides. At the end of the hallway there was a staircase that led to the downstairs, but Harry wasn't going there yet. Kingsley led Harry to the room across the hallway.

"Wait here and I'll go fetch Madame Pomfrey so she can fix up your shoulder," Kingsley said, and then he left. Harry sat down on the bed in the middle of the room and examined his surroundings. The room was nothing special, it was averaged sized and contained a normal twin sized bed, a dresser in the corner and a desk against one of the other walls. There was what looked like a woven circle with beads attached to it hanging above the bed; he didn't know what it was but he assumed it was part of Dumbledore's decoration. There was one window in the room, but all he could see out of it was darkness.

It was then, as Harry tried to relax on his bed that he realized something: there was something on his leg. He pulled up is pant leg to reveal the snake that had helped him earlier was wound tightly around his leg. As soon as the snake saw him it began to hiss at him.

"How dare you subject me to such a crude means of travel. After I helped you and made sure you survived the night this is how you treat me? I should bite you for being such a cruel master. Maybe--" Harry cut off its angry hissing by pulling his pant leg back down and covering it up. He heard footsteps approaching and soon the door to the room he was in was slammed open without so much as a knock. Harry was immediately defensive, but he soon realized that there was no need to be.

"Harry Potter," Madame Pomfrey shouted as soon as she was in the door, "why does it not surprise me that you are my first patient when the school year hasn't even started yet? Although I guess I shouldn't be very surprised with the way you always get into trouble. Why I ne--"

"Now Poppy," a familiar voice interrupted the healers tirade, "I am sure that young Mister Potter does not go around looking for trouble, it just all ways seems to find him." In the door way stood Albus Dumbledore, headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and holder of more titles than Harry could even try and count on one hand. With just a nod, Madam Pomfrey made her way over to Harry.

"Which shoulder is it Potter?" She asked.

"My left," was his answer. It wasn't long before he felt a soothing warmth over his left shoulder and then the throbbing pain that had been there was gone. Without another word, Madame Pomfrey made her way out the door leaving Harry and Dumbledore alone together.

"I would just like to apologize," the elderly man began, "it seems my protection over your relatives house was not as strong as it should have been. Not even your mothers protection lived up to its expectations." Harry just nodded; he was not really in the mood to talk to the man before him. "I also came to tell you that you will be needing training. I have asked Kingsley and Alastor and both have agreed to train you and your friends, if that is what you want."

"Yeah," Harry muttered, "I guess I will need training if I'm supposed to-"

"Lets not talk about that right now," Dumbledore interrupted, "It would be best to keep that between you and I for now." Both of them stayed in an uneasy silence for a minute before Dumbledore spoke again, "Well, I shall be going now, I am sure there are others you would rather talk to." He began to walk away, but Harry remembered the snake around his leg and stopped him before he could get out of the door.

"Wait, Professor." Harry called after him. The elderly man stopped and turned around, a small glint of hope in his eyes. Harry took the snake, which was still angrily hissing, off his leg and offered it to his Professor. "This snake, it helped me out, but I'm not sure if it's safe. I figured I would give it to the Order to checkout."

Dumbledore nodded and accepted the snake, the small glint of hope in his eyes disappearing. "Very well," He said, "I shall have it checked out." Once Dumbledore exited the room a tall red headed figure appeared in the doorway.

"Hey Harry," Ron Weasley said.

Harry stood up and greeted his friend with a manly back slapping hug. "Hey Ron, it's good to see you."

"Hello Harry," said another voice from the doorway. Harry looked past Ron to see his little sister standing in the doorway holding a tray of food.

"Hey Ginny,"

"Mum told me to bring this up," She said indicating the food tray. "She said she would have done it herself, but she's busy at the moment."

"Yes," Ron said, a smile on his face, "I believe at the moment she is busy chewing out Kingsley Shacklebolt for not protecting you and Dumbledore is next." Harry chuckled at the news, Molly Weasley was one of the only people who would yell at Dumbledore, Harry was another one. Harry accepted the food tray from Ginny and sat down on his bed. As he did so he missed the look Ginny gave Ron. "So Harry," Ron began uneasily, "how've you been doing?"

"I've been all right," Harry said, pausing to talk after his first bite of food, "although I think my summer is going to be better now that I'm away from the Dursley's"

"Ah, that's good," Ron said, his voice sounding slightly relieved. He sat down next to Harry and began to start a new topic of conversation when Ginny delivered a stealthy kick to his shin that Harry missed. "Uh, I mean, are you sure? I mean, what with Sirius and all." Harry stopped eating suddenly and looked at Ron disbelievingly. That didn't sound like Ron at all. Harry was about to answer Ron's question when Ginny spoke.

"What Ron means Harry," she said as she sat down on the other side of him, "is that we just want to know if you are dealing with Sirius' death well." She finished; she looked slightly uneasy, like someone who might be dealing with unstable potion ingredients.

Harry sighed; he really didn't want to talk about this at the moment. "I'm fine you guys, really," he said, hoping that they would drop the subject.

"That's good mate," Ron said, patting Harry on the back, "Hermione had the idea in her head that you might blame yourself for Sirius' death." Harry's eyes dropped to the food tray on his lap and he whispered something out loud that he had only meant to think.

"It is my fault,"

"What? Don't say that Harry it--," Ginny began in protest, but Harry cut her off.

"Of course it's my fault, Gin," Harry said, not able to keep the anger from rising in his voice, "It was my stupid decision that got him killed and my friends hurt."

"Harry that's not true," Ron said this time, "Sirius chose to go down there on his own and it's not your fault."

"He went there because of me!" Harry said angrily, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't gone then Hermione wouldn't have nearly died, Ginny wouldn't have been hurt, and you wouldn't have been attacked by those damn brains," Ron visibly paled at the mention of the brains and said no more.

"Harry, we chose to go to the Department of Mysteries just like Sirius did and we were ready to accept the consequences," Ginny retorted.

"You don't get it," Harry said, he was not shouting yet but the anger in his voice was obvious to those in the room. "If it hadn't been for me none of this would have happened."

"Harry don't---,"Ginny began only to be interrupted.

"Look you guys," Harry began, trying to calm himself down and not knock over his food tray, "I've had a rough night, I'm tired, and I don't feel like talking about this right now. So, can we just call it a night?" Ginny opened her mouth once again to protest but Ron stopped her.

"Lets go Gin," Ron said, he was still a bit shaken at the mention of the brains but there was an undeniable strength in his voice. He got up and headed for the door, Ginny reluctantly got up and took the food tray from Harry and followed Ron out the door.

Harry sighed, he hadn't meant to get mad at his friend, and they had only been trying to be there for him after all. It was just that he wasn't ready for that discussion yet. He got up off the bed and blew out the lamp that kept the room illuminated. When he had said he was tired he had meant it, he kicked off his shoes and took off his glasses before getting into bed. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep and when he did it was interrupted by the appearance of an old friend.

_The Dark Lord Voldemort sat high upon his throne, his seat at least two feet above that of his servants. His red eyes burned even darker on this night in anger. His skeletal hands gripped the edge of his seat and his lip was curled up in sign of distaste._

"_What did you say?" The Dark Lord seethed with barely restrained rage, speaking to the man kneeling in front of him._

"_I failed to capture him, sir," the man restated clearly. Not much of him could be seen in the room but his baldhead._

"_You failed," the Dark Lord repeated, "to capture and unarmed fifteen year old boy?"_

"_Excuse me," the man said, standing up in a defiant yet foolish move, "but have you not failed to do the exact same thing many times before?" Voldemort remained seated, his rage becoming even more evident. "I am not one of your servants to push around, you hired me for a job and I failed, our contract ends here." With that the man turned and began to leave._

"_Why you insolent fool!" a Death Eater said, pulling out his wand and advancing on the leaving man, "No one talks that way to--"_

"_Leave him Lucius," Voldemort said, his voice an eerie calm, "the man is right, our contract with him is over. He no longer owes us anything." Lucius Malfoy obeyed his master's command and put his wand away. The man freely walked away and out the door. There was an uneasy silence in the room for few moments following the mans departure in which no one dared to speak. It was Voldemort who broke the silence. "Bella," he said, his voice no longer calm as it had been before._

"_Yes my lord?" Bellatrix Lestrange answered her master's call._

"_Take a couple of others and escort our friend home," Voldemort said, the evil smile on his near lipless mouth made it obvious what he truly meant._

"_Understood my lord," she said, a maniacal smile hidden behind her mask. She stood up and beckoned a couple of nearby Death Eaters to follow her._

"_And Bella," Voldemort called after her before she could reach the door, "make sure he is brought back alive, he still has his uses."_

"_Yes, my lord," she said once again before bowing and walking out the door with the others._

"_They shall know the price of standing up to the Dark Lord Voldemort." he whispered to himself. It was awhile before anyone spoke again. "McNair how goes the project?"_

"_It goes well, my lord. It shouldn't be long before we can move it into the final stages," Voldemort looked pleased with this news and opened his mouth to say something but the scene vanished and Harry Potter awoke in a cold sweat lying in bed._

Harry sat up in bed and tried to recall the dream he had just had but he couldn't. He knew it was about Voldemort but the details kept slipping from him. It was as if something was pulling the dream from his mind so he couldn't remember it. He tried for another five minutes before he gave up and laid down in bed again._ Maybe it was just a normal dream._ He thought to himself. He truly hoped it had been just a normal dream, but the dull throbbing pain in his scar told him that it wasn't. He fell back into a peaceful,dreamless sleep.

The next morning Harry was awoken by knocking on his door.

"Harry," Ron called through the door, "It's time to come down for breakfast." Harry slowly opened his eyes. He was still a bit tired, but he didn't know why. The dream from last night had faded from his memory. He groggily got out of bed and stood up, stretching his limbs as he did so. He put his glasses back on his face and made his way to the door. When he opened the door he was greeted by Ron.

"Mornin' Harry," Ron said.

"Morning Ron," Harry said, holding back a yawn as he did so. He was silently glad that his friend seemed to have forgotten about the controversy of the night before. Ron began to head down the hallway towards the stairs and Harry followed. They traveled down the stairs and past the living room and into the dinning room. As he entered he saw that a couple of Order members would be having breakfast along with all of the Wesley's besides the eldest three children.

"Incoming," Rom muttered out the side of his mouth before hurrying off to his seat. Harry had just enough time to wonder what Ron had meant when he was wrapped into a tight embrace.

"Oh Harry dear, it's so good to see you," Molly Weasley said in a soothing tone. "How've you been dear? Have those muggles been feeding you well?"

"Uh, yeah, I've been fine." Harry replied, still stuck in the strong embrace.

"You are still much too skinny my dear," she said, holding him at arms length, "sit down while I fix you a plate." She finally let him go and went to make him a plate that looked much too large for him. Harry began to make his way towards the table when he was stopped by two other people crushing him into an embrace from two different sides.

"Oh Harry, we've missed you so," cried the familiar voice of one of the Weasley twins, although Harry could never tell which.

"Yes, its been much too long," the other twin cried.

"How long has it been George?" the other cried, apparently Fred.

"More than a week," George responded.

Fred let out a tortured howl, "Has it been so long brother? These horrible days have dragged on so long I have lost all meaning of time without our little Harrykins."

"Yes, brother, let us hold him in our tight embrace and never let go."

"We may kill him,"

"It will be well worth the risk,"

"Now boys," Mrs. Weasley interrupted the twins melodrama, "Harry doesn't need you two hanging on him like that, he needs to eat."

Both twins let go of him and gave him a thump on a back. "Yes mother," They both said in unison heading for the door. It was then that Harry saw them both were wearing the same leather jackets they had been wearing before. "See ya Harry," Fred said on his way out.

"Yup," said George, "got to get back to the shop." With that they were out of the room and had left a slightly embarrassed Harry and an amused breakfast table behind. Harry took the large plate of food from Mrs. Weasley and made his way to the table. He sat down at the table and gave morning greetings to the people he recognized. He sat down in a seat between Ron and Ginny and began to eat.

"By the way Harry," Ron began, "you've got some explaining to do."

"Yeah, I know," Harry replied, "I'll tell you guys everything after breakfast." Ron just nodded and began to wolf down his food.

"Ello there Harry," a voice from across the table greeted, "heard you got into a bit o' trouble." Harry looked up from his food and looked into the bloodshot eyes of Mundungus Fletcher.

"Uh, yeah, I did," Harry replied, not really interested in talking to the man.

" I was wonderin'," the squat man continued, "if you could describe the fella who tried to get ya." Harry was startled that the man was interested.

"I didn't get a good look at him," Harry answered, he was telling the truth, but he wouldn't have told him even if he had known. There was something about the man that Harry didn't like; perhaps it was the fact that he was a crook.

"He was a Caucasian male of average height and build, he looked to be in his late twenties and his hair was shaved bald. His eyes were a pale blue and his face was heavily scarred." Kingsley Shacklebolt intoned in his deep voice from his position at the entrance.

"Oi, Kingsley," Mundungus turned around from his seat at the table and looked at the tall man, "Didn't see you come in."

"Is there a reason you are so interested in Harry?" Kingsley asked, obvious distaste in his voice as he spoke.

"Just thought I might know the bloke who did it, is all," Mundungus said, oblivious to the distaste in Kingsley's voice.

"And do you?" Kingsley asked, Harry was also interested in knowing who the man was.

"Yeah," Mundungus replied, "sounds like a hit man for the Wizarding Mafia, names Abraham Louis."

Kingsley took on a thoughtful look before speaking again, "I'm not familiar with that name."

"Yeah, he's new to the family, started a few months ago."

"Hmm," Kingsley hummed in thought before speaking again, "Come with me 'Dung, we have to tell this to Dumbledore."

"But I haven't finished my breakfast yet," the squat man protested. His protest didn't last long as he was dragged out of his chair by Kingsley. Mundungus continued to protest as he was dragged to the door by the much larger man, but his cries were heard on deaf ears. Before he reached the door Kingsley turned and faced the table again, "You three," he said, indicating Harry, Ron and Ginny, "will begin your training in two hours." With that he left the room dragging a still protesting Mundungus Fletcher with him.

After Kingsley left, Harry spent a couple of minutes finishing up his breakfast before going into the living room with Ron and Ginny. Ron challenged Harry to a game of chess while Ginny decided to sit down and read a book. As Harry played Ron in chess he recounted his summer so far, including the attack by the mafia hit man.

"Wow," Ron said, "The wizard mafia, that's something new."

"Yeah," Harry said in a joking tone, "it was rather strange to have _someone else _trying to kill me,"

"Well," Ron replied, as one of his pieces took one of Harry's "If they're after you then they are most likely allied with You-Know-Who, right?"

"I guess," was all Harry said in reply, instructing one of his pieces to take one of Ron's.

A victorious smirk formed on Ron's face, "Check mate," he proclaimed. Harry studied the board and sure enough Ron was right, he had beaten Harry again.

"You should just stop playing," said one of Harry's own pieces.

"That's a real fine way to talk to you commander," Harry said, flicking the piece off the board and into the floor.

Ron chuckled and picked the piece up off the floor, "He's right you know, you are really bad at this."

"Yeah, well at least I managed to take out a few of your pieces before I went down." Harry retorted, a friendly smirk on his face.

Ron shook his head and chuckled some more, "That why you always lose, the point of the game is strategy not destruction."

"I stopped trying to use strategies against you a long time ago, none of them ever worked."

Ron began to reset the board, "another play?" he asked Harry.

"Sure, we don't have anything else to do for another hour or so." As Harry watched Ron silently reset the board he felt he needed to say something. "You guys, I'm, uh, sorry about last night." Ron stopped setting the board and Ginny stopped reading her book and looked his way. "I'm just not ready to talk about _that _yet, okay?"

"It's all right, mate," Ron said, going back to setting up the board. Harry looked over to Ginny and she gave him a smile.

"Yeah," she said, "we understand." Harry let out a relieved sigh and watched as Ron set the board.

"Plus," Ron added, "It was mostly Hermione's fault."

"Ron," Ginny exclaimed.

"Well its true," Ron said, "she's the one who told us to talk to Harry about it,"

"I'm sure Hermione meant well, now let's start that game of chess Ron." Harry said.

"That eager to be beat again, eh?" And Harry was beaten again, and again, and again. In fact, Harry spent the entire time up until their training being beaten by Ron. It was just after he had been beaten for the fifth time when Kingsley came to collect them.

"Lets go," was all Kingsley said. Ron packed away his chess set and Ginny put away her book and they all followed Kingsley to the back of the house. "Here Potter," Kingsley said, holding out Harry's wand, "you might be needing this today."

"But what about the laws?" Harry asked, this question had been on his mind since he had been told about his training last night.

"Don't worry," Kingsley replied, "Dumbledore took care of that."

"What do you mean 'took care of that'?" Ron asked.

"Don't bother, its too complicated to explain," was Kingsley's reply. He opened the back door and let them out onto the backyard and it was there that Harry realized why Dumbledore had bought this house.

It was the view.

The backyard overlooked beautiful rolling plains that seemed to stretch on forever. There were a few trees scattered along here or there and some small animals could be seen scurrying around. It was a beautiful view and it made the idea of Dumbledore retiring seem much more plausible. Harry could easily imagine the old man spending the last of his days overlooking the beautiful plains at twilight. Although Harry wasn't in a very great relationship with the elderly man, this peaceful thought made him crack a small smile.

"What's up mate?" Ron asked as he saw the smile on Harry's face.

"Nothing," Harry muttered, "I think I just realized something,"

"What ever you say," Ron replied to Harry's vague comment, "let get going before Mad-Eye gets mad at us." Ron began to head towards the middle of the closed off backyard where Moody, Kingsley and Ginny were already standing and Harry followed him.

"Now that we're all here," Moody began, focusing both his eyes on the three teenagers in front of him, "I'm sure you three know why you're here. You can't seem to stop getting in trouble, especially you Potter. The solution Dumbledore proposes is to train you up so that next time you get into a sticky situation you can defend yourself."

"On Ten o'clock everyday except Sunday we will have the first part of our training for two hours." Kingsley said, taking over, "after that we will break an hour for lunch, then we will resume with the second half of our training. Any questions?"

"What about Hermione?" Ron asked, "Doesn't she deserve training too?"

"Yes," Kingsley said, "but at the moment she is on vacation with her parents. Until she gets back here she will be training with Tonks." Ron nodded in acceptance, but Harry had another question.

"Then what about the others? Don't Neville and Luna deserve training too?" he asked.

"We offered them training but Lovegood is on a trip with her father to find gnarly snokaks or some such nonsense." Kingsley explained, causing Ginny to giggle when he stumbled over the name of one of Luna's creatures, "and Mrs. Longbottom doesn't want her grandson ending up like his parents." Harry thought he saw something pass over the stoic aurors face when he talked about the Longbottoms but it was gone before he even knew if it was really there.

"Well then," Moody said, moving forward, "are there any more questions?" When no one answered he continued, "Well then, let's begin."

* * *

**Authors Note:** There goes chapter two. Thank to the people who reviewed chapter one on Gamefaqs and here; special thanks to the people who helped me by pointing out my mistakes,feel free to point out any mistakes I made in this chapter if you like. Next chapter will take longer to get out,no more than two weeks though. Read and Review. I now take anonymous reviews. 


	3. Chapter 3: Training Days

**Disclaimer:** If your recognize it from any of the Harry Potter books it belongs to JKR and her publishers, not me.

**Chapter 3: Training Days**

"Faster Potter! If you stop moving you die!"

Harry danced around to the encouraging words of Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody. Ron, Ginny and Kingsley all stood in front of Harry in a line; all three holding out their wands and shooting spells at him like a firing squad. It was his job to dodge as many of them as he could. Moody had called this 'footwork drills'. He had said that since the three teenagers were young and most of their opponents would be older men they should work on their speed and agility so that they could use it to there advantage. Harry had thought it was a good idea at first, the footwork drills seemed like they could be kind of fun.

That was before they had been forced to do them for the last thirty minutes.

Their training had started off with a quick bit of stretching and a small amount of physical exercise. After that they had done some practice dueling. Ron had done a good job defeating Ginny in his duel with her, although she did get him with a strong tickling charm that had nearly cost him the match. Harry had then gone and beat Ron in a duel, it was a close one but Harry managed to get Ron with a stunner square in the chest. Then, to be fair to Ron who had had to duel twice, Harry and Ginny had dueled; Ginny was fast and small which made her hard to hit but Harry had still won in the end.

When their duels had been over Moody had decided to tell them what he had thought. It hadn't been pretty. He had yelled and spat at them for a good five minutes telling them how bad they were, he even said that their poor duels had been enough reason for him to just give up and leave. Kingsley had been a bit nicer about things, but only a bit. He had told them that they lacked creativity, they lacked a good knowledge of spells, they were to slow on their spell casting, and he was surprised they had even managed to survive the Department of Mysteries incident.

It was then, after a couple more minutes of lecturing, that Moody brought up the idea of footwork drills. He had said that they would need to learn to move around more while dueling and that they should use the energy of youth to their advantage. To quote him _'In a duel, if you stop moving you die'. _And so, Harry and the others had been forced to do footwork drills for the last thirty minutes. So far, Ginny had had the best time with one minute and six seconds. Harry came in second and Ron was last. Harry had lost count of how many times he had gone.

He continued to dodge and dance around the harmless spells that the others sent at him as Moody continued to bark encouragement at him. He threw himself on the ground and rolled to his left before shooting back up and ducking one of the spells heading for his head. Unfortunately he didn't see the second spell which hit him in the head, splattering his face with paint.

"Got him!" Ron called out triumphantly. Harry fell to the ground and began to catch his breath.

"Fifty seconds," Moody called out, "good Potter, at least you managed to beat your old record by a few seconds."

"I think that's enough footwork drills for now," Kingsley Shacklebolt said. All three teenagers looked at the tall man with hope in their eyes, none of them had the energy for any more drills.

"Aye," Moody agreed, surprising everyone, "it looks like your our champion for today Weasley," he added, indicating Ginny. At the bit of praise she puffed up with a little pride.

"Of course she did the best," Ron said, "she's so small and fast"

"You're just jealous," Ginny said in a childish tone, sticking her tongue out at her older brother.

"Am not,"

"Are too,"

"Am not,"

"C'mon Ron," Harry said, taking the towel Kingsley provided and wiping his face of the paint Ron's spell had left there. "Just cause you got last doesn't mean you have to be jealous," he joked.

"Look at the two of you," Ron said, indicating his sister and his best friend, "how was I supposed to compete with you two fairies?" Harry just shook his head and chuckled.

"I think you three misunderstood me," Moody began, interrupting the joking banter, "the drills are over but you've still got half an hour of training left before break, you don't have time to start relaxing." All three teenagers stopped their smiling and joking and looked at Moody. "We're going to teach you a spell today, a spell that might come in handy when dueling." Moody nodded to Kingsley and he took over. Moody walked to the other end of the backyard.

"We are going to teach you the _repello _charm." he paused and waited for any form of recognition from the teenagers. When he got none he continued. "As the name suggest the charm is used to help repel other spells. To cast it you hold your wand out in front of you and say the incantation _repello-" _as he said the incantation his wand lit up with a faint blue glow_, "-_then you can send back most spells your opponent sends at you." Kingsley nodded to Moody who had now made it to the other side of the backyard. Moody raised his wand and sent an unknown spell hurtling towards Kingsley. The tall auror pulled his still glowing wand back and swung it like a beaters bat, sending it right back to Moody. The retired auror sidestepped the spell and it flew past him and impacted a nearby tree, blasting a hole in it.

Harry gaped at the hole the spell had made in the tree. "You blocked that with just your wand?"

Kingsley nodded, "The _repello_ charm can block most curses, hexes, jinxes, and charms. It of course can't block the unforgivables and other strong curses, but it still should be useful to you."

Moody walked back over to where the others were standing, "Now," he began, "Potter you pair up with Ginny, and Ron you and Kingsley will be partners," With that everyone went off with their partners. Harry and Ginny paired off and fired harmless spells at each other and tried to reflect them back. Kingsley had made it look easier than it really was but eventually they got the hang of it. Practicing the spell was even a little fun; it became a kind of game to see who would get hit first. But it wasn't long before even that got hard. They had to swing their wand back and forth and it began to take its toll on their already tired bodies. Moody was walking in between the two sets of partners and any time one of the teenagers began to 'slack off' he would begin to bark at them, threatening them with even more practice if he thought they weren't giving 110.

Soon, although not soon enough to Harry, Moody called for them to stop. Harry allowed the spell Ginny and just knocked toward him to shoot past him and fly off into the distance. The three teenagers headed for the backdoor where Moody had been watching them.

When they got there it was Kinsley who spoke first. "You three did good today," he congratulated while Moody snorted, "but, you've still got a long way to go before you should even think of crossing paths with another death eater. Now, go grab yourself some lunch, clean up and meet us in the library at one o clock." With that he and Moody headed inside and the three weary teenagers followed. All three of them were drenched in sweat and their hair was disheveled and stuck out in odd places. They did not look good. Harry and Ron began to make their way to the dining room while Ginny headed for the stairs.

"Where you goin' Gin?" Ron asked his retreating sister.

"I can't stand being all sweaty," she said looking down at herself in distaste, "I'm going to freshen up before lunch." The boys both nodded and she continued up the stairs.

"It's better she go now anyways," Ron said as they made it to the dining room, "there are only two bathrooms so one of us would have been left waiting." They found the dining room empty except for Mrs. Weasley. "Everyone left all ready?" She just nodded.

"Where is Ginny?"

"She went to go clean up,"

"Well sit down, I've made some sandwiches for lunch."

Harry sat down and thankfully took the meal Mrs. Weasley offered him. As he ate he distinctly heard Ron mutter something about corn beef but it was mostly a quiet meal. Once the boys finished they headed up stairs and found that Ginny was done with her shower and heading down stairs to eat. Harry entered the room he had slept in and got some clothes out of his trunk. As he was fishing through his clothes he noticed the snake curled up on his bed. Apparently Moody had declared the snake safe. He knew he needed to talk to the snake and find out just what it wanted, but at the moment he also need to do other things like get into the shower.

He picked out his newest set of hand me downs from his whale of a cousin Dudley and made his way to the door. He and Ron met in the hallway and Ron offered to take the downstairs bathroom leaving Harry to the upstairs one Ginny had just used. He entered the bathroom and stripped down before turning on the water and stepping into the shower. As soon as he was in he let out a sigh as the warm water ran over his skin. The water was great on his tired muscles and he just stood there for a while to allow his muscles to relax.

He took about twenty minutes in the shower before turning it off and drying himself. He got dressed again and headed towards his room. When he got to his room he saw Ron standing there waiting for him.

"Bout time you got out," Ron said with a grin.

"Couldn't help it," Harry replied, "That water felt great."

"Yeah," Ron agreed.

"How much time until we have to be down in the library?"

"We've still got about ten minutes, but we should probably just go there now." Harry agreed and followed Ron out of his room and down to the library. As they traveled through the house they contemplated on what they were going to be doing for their second half of training.

"Since were going to the library it shouldn't be too hard," Harry reasoned.

"Yeah but I wouldn't put it past Mad-Eye to make us do more drills in the library." As they both entered the library they saw Ginny sitting down at a table. The room was nothing special, it wasn't very large but it had bookcases lined up on every wall. In the middle of the room there was a square table with books piled on it that looked like it was able to seat four or five comfortably. Even though it was nothing special, especially compared to the other library's he had seen, it was still quite large for a 'retirement home'. As Harry and Ron entered the library and sat down at the table no one said anything.

Harry had to interrupt the silence with a question that had recently popped up on his mind. "You guys, whatever happened to Percy?" he asked, both Weasley children looked up at him, "I mean, is he still supporting the ministry?"

Ron let out a sigh and Ginny remained silent, "He's still being a prat. He apologized to mum and dad, but he still won't admit that the ministry was wrong. He still stands by Fudge and the others and won't join the Order."

"Wow," Harry said in disbelief, "I didn't think anyone could be so thick."

"That's my brother," Ginny said with false pride.

They lapsed into silence once more. As they waited for their mentors to arrive Harry couldn't help but think. Another war was coming and the Ministry had finally recognized that Voldemort was back. Would Fudge stop acting like an idiot and finally take some action. Harry couldn't help but think that he wouldn't.

The door to the library opened and Moody and Kingsley waked in. "Good, you're all here," Kingsley addressed the three teenagers, "for the second half of your training you are going to study," Ron let out a groan but Kingsley continued as if he hadn't heard anything, "Before the end of summer you are going to read all the books in the center of that table. We will do this everyday for two hours after noon, but you are allowed to read on you own time. Any questions?"

"We have to read all the books? Cover to cover?" Ron asked, eyeing some of the thicker books in the stack.

"Yes Weasley," Moody answered gruffly, "it won't hurt you to do a little reading."

"Now I'm sure you three don't need us to monitor your studies," Kingsley continued, "so we'll be going." He and Moody turned and left. The room was quiet for a second before Ron began.

"I would rather go back outside than do this," he grumbled.

"C'mon Ron," Ginny said, picking the first book off the pile, "It's not going to kill you to study." Harry agreed with her and began looking through the books to find one worth reading. Many of the books were made for aurors or instruction manuals on how to duel properly. One book caught his attention though: The Dirtiest of Dark Beast and How to Defeat Them by Daray Thetis. He pulled the book from the stack and looked through it. It looked like it was a few years old but it was still one of the best looking one the pile had to offer. Deciding to read it, Harry looked over to Ron and saw him sitting with his arms crossed.

"You just gonna sit there?" Harry asked.

"I refuse to study anything that's not required by school." He replied resolutely.

"You know Mad-Eye might be watching through the door, right?" Harry said with a smirk, Ron quickly grabbed the nearest book and opened it. Harry noticed that the book was So You Want to Be an Auror? by Brian Jameson. It was also one of the shorter books in the pile.

Not wanting to be caught by Moody's eye anymore than Ron, Harry opened his book and began reading. From what the table of contents told him, the book contained individual chapters on many dark creatures. Harry started the book where most books begin, the first chapter which was about dementors.

_The dementor is one of the most well know and feared dark creatures ever known to exist to man. Dementors are foul creatures that are capable of taking one thing from us humans that matters to us the most, our very souls. Anyone in the presence of one of these creatures is nearly incapable of feeling any happiness or hope, but that is only the beginning of their horrible power. If a dementor deems you worthy it will give you the last kiss you will ever receive, a kiss that will take your soul. Studies from the 1700s show that dementors prefer to kiss those with more happiness and love in their soul. The wizards behind this experiment took two muggles, one who was down on his luck and very depressed and the other a man with a happy, loving family. When the dementor was released on these two men it chose the happy man first and then moved on to the depressed man. This sick experiment is one of the only documented reports on a dementor's behavior._

_Despite the fact that they are well know not much is truly known about the dementors. The most mysterious thing about the dementor is its origin. No one knows where the dementor came from. Common belief is that dementors have always existed alongside wizards, this is not true. The first sighting was in 1553. One of the most popular stories about the creation of dementors is that they were a failed attempt at bringing a human being to life. According to the story a woman tried to bring back her dead husband who she had loved so much. She spent all her time working on spell theories and experimenting until one day she thought she had it right. She attempted to bring back her husband but what appeared instead was a dark creature that took the shape of a human and had no soul. The woman embraced the creature thinking that even through its hideousness that it was still her husband. The newly formed dementor kissed the woman and took her soul. This story is mainly used as a fairy tale to warn children against trying to bring back dead loved ones, but it may have some historical value. The first sighting of a dementor was in the 1500s, which was when the magical art of alchemy was at the height of its popularity. Besides seeking immortality and transmuting lead into gold one of the things most alchemist tried to do was create an artificial human. It is quite possible that the dementor was a failed attempt at creating a human. Also, the first dementor sighting came a few years after Paracelsus created his first homunculus and many alchemist were trying to do the same._

_No matter how they were created, it didn't take long for wizards to realize that the dementor was something to be feared. It was many years before wizards found a way to fight a dementor and thus how to control it. As far as is know, there is no sure way to kill a dementor, only drive them back. The only spell to harm them is the Patronus (see below)._

_The dementor's native land is Great Britain. There have been dementor sightings in other areas of the world, but these sightings are few in number. All dementors in the UK are under the control of the Ministry of Magic. The ministry usually uses these fowl creatures to guard the prison of Azkaban, one of the most feared locations on earth. Many dementors have been known to side with dark wizards in times of conflict. The dark side can offer them more souls than the light can. One of the worst dementor attacks ever know was headed by a dark lord, he set fifty dementors onto a small muggle village, and everyone was kissed._

_Despite the fact that they are very well known, not many people truly know what a dementor looks like. Most people only see dementors when they are under their black cloaks, but not their face or their body. The top half of a dementor is slightly humanoid in shape but the skin has the look of rotting flesh; it peels off in places to reveal twisted black bones. The face is nothing like a normal humans, the dementor has no ears or eyes and for a mouth all it has is a gaping hole with which to suck to souls of its victims. The dementor has no bottom half; it has no feet or legs or anything that it could use to stand up on its own. It just floats._

_Now that we are a bit more familiar with dementors its time to talk about how to defeat them. There is no way know to kill a dementor but one can drive it back using the Patronus Charm. . ._

Harry stopped reading there and skimmed over the rest of the chapter. The book was very interesting and he had learned some new things about dementors but he already knew how to do the patronus charm and didn't think it was worth it to read through that section of the book in depth. He moved onto the other chapters, which talked about other dark creatures. He read about vampires and werewolves and acromantula (he stopped to show Ron an artist sketch that made him nearly fall out of his seat). The rest of the chapters followed the same format as the first one; first it talked about the origin of the creature and then went into how to defeat it. The book was quite interesting and Harry was glad that he chose it.

He continued to read in silence with his three companions for a while longer before a knock on the door announced the arrival of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"Times up," he said, poking his baldhead through the door. The teenagers all set their books down as one and got up from the table. They exited the Library and headed for the living room. "We start training the same time tomorrow." Kingsley continued as they walked past him.

"Well, that was boring," Ron said once they had gotten out of earshot of Kingsley.

"It wasn't that bad," Ginny said.

"Yeah," Harry agreed, "the book I was reading was pretty good."

"So, what do you guys want to do now?" Ron asked, "up for another game of chess Harry?"

"No, I think I've been beaten enough for one day,"

"Well then, how about a game of quidditch?"

"There's only three of us Ron how are we going to play quidditch" Ginny answered.

Ron sighed and fell into the nearby chair, "There's not much to do here, is there?"

"Nope," Harry and Ginny answered at the same time, sitting on the couch.

* * *

Harry slowly made his way up the stairs alongside Ron and Ginny. Their afternoon had been much like their early morning. They had spent most of their time reading or playing various games. Harry had eventually conceded to Rons demands and got beaten at chess a couple more times.

Dinner had been just as uneventful as the rest of the afternoon had been. It had mainly been a Weasley dinner plus Harry, Kingsley and Moody. The only highlight had been when one of the twins had tried to slip one of their pranks into Moody's glass only to be tricked by the old auror into drinking it himself. George still sported a rainbow afro.

After dinner Harry and the others had all sat down and had some more free time. But this time the three teens decided against sticking around for too long. Their training had left them both mentally and physically tired so they had decided to head up to bed much earlier than usual.

"Night Ron, Ginny," Harry said as he parted way with both his friends.

"Night," they said in reply, heading into their respective rooms. Harry went into his room and immediately began to take off his clothes and change into his pajamas. He began to get into bed when he was interrupted.

"You can't ignore me forever, master," hissed the snake.

"Oh, it's you," Harry said, startled by the snake, "I wasn't avoiding you I was just busy."

"Well we need to talk," the snake said from its position on Harry's pillow.

"Yeah, I guess we do," Harry said, although he truly would rather be sleeping than talking to the snake, "why wont you leave me alone?"

"Because you are my master," the snake responded, "have I not told you this before?"

"How can I be your master if I've never owned a snake before?"

"Because you are," the snake replied bluntly.

"That makes since," Harry said sarcastically.

"So you finally see the truth," the snake responded without noticing the sarcasm.

"I was joking," Harry clarified, "I can't be your master just because you say I am."

"But you are my master," the snake said, "can you not feel it?"

"Feel what?" Harry asked confused.

"The bond we share," the snake said, confusing Harry even more, "the bond of master and servant." Harry stared at the snake with an eyebrow arched. Was it possible for snakes to be crazy?

"Look," Harry began, "I have no idea what you are talking about, but if you insist on following me around then you're going to have to stop this master stuff."

"Then what shall I call you, master?"

"My name is Harry,"

"Very well Master Harry," the snake said, causing Harry to cringe. He could tell already that trying to get the snake to just use his name was useless.

"Now I'm tired so lets continue this some other time." Harry said, taking the snake off his bed and putting it on the floor. He laid his head on his pillow and basked in the simple pleasure of a soft bed on his weary muscles before a thought came to mind. "Do you have a name?" he asked, directing his question toward the snake.

"I have never been graced with a human name, Master Harry," the snake replied.

"I guess it's my job to name you then," Harry said, the snake remained silent, "your name will be… Danny," Harry said, saying the first name that had come to his mind.

"Danny, master?" the snake questioned, "are you sure that such a name is befitting of me? Surely you could think of name that is far more-"

"Danny," Harry interrupted.

"Yes, master?" the snake replied.

"Shut up."

* * *

The next week passed by for Harry much the same way his first day had. He woke up in the morning and had breakfast with the others, after that he would spend a few hours of free time with Ron and Ginny doing various activities. Then would come the training. The first week of training had been just as hard as the first day. They had continued to do footwork drills, but had also started other things. They had learned a few new spells but most of their time had been spent on technique. They practiced stances and techniques for dueling and always had a practice duel. Although Harry knew they had along way to go before they were complete with their training, he could already spot improvements after just one week. The footwork drills had become much easier than they had been on that first day and the practice duels had become much more competitive. The few spells they had learned in the week had been very practical and useful. The second half of training had also been progressing well, he had finished the book on dark creatures and was now on a book called Dueling Tactics for Those in Peril by John Jackson. It was an interesting book that contained some tactics for when you were being beaten in a duel.

Today, though, Harry was putting all that training out of his mind. Today was his off day. Mrs. Weasley had called all three teenagers down for breakfast at the same time as usual that morning but they had decided that they would sleep in on their first off day. At the moment Harry reclined on his bed with his hands behind his head. There was another reason today was special to him. Today was the day Hermione was coming to HQ.

It had only been two weeks since Harry had seen his bushy haired friend and he was still eager to see her. She had already sent them a few letters, talking about how wonderful her vacation was, and asking them how they were doing. She was in China with her parents and she was apparently "Learning oh so much about the Chinese magical culture."

Deciding he had laid in bed long enough Harry got up. He didn't bother changing out of his pajamas, as he knew that he wouldn't be doing anything important today. He spotted his new 'pet' lying on the floor still asleep. Over the week he had gotten used to the snake constantly following him around and calling him Master. He had even allowed the snake (Danny) to warp around his arm and stay with him during the day. He still didn't know what was wrong with the snake or where it had come from, but he didn't really mind it anymore.

Harry made his way to the door and opened it to see Fred and George just about to enter his room.

"Mornin'," said Fred, who had an F on his leather jacket.

"Sleep well?" asked George. Without waiting for an answer the twins pushed him back into his room and sat him back on his bed.

"As you know Harry," Fred began, "George and I have been rolling in galleons ever since we opened our joke shop."

"And we've been thinking," continued George, "what should we do to thank our primary investor?"

"You guys don't need to do anything," Harry said.

"Harry we're Weasleys," Fred said as if that made sense, "we don't like taking things without giving something in return,"

"Unless its Christmas,"

"Indeed," Fred nodded, "so we've decided to make you partner."

Harry opened his mouth to say something and then closed it again. He stared at the smiling twins before finally answering, "You guys don't have to do that. I mean, your mother would be-"

"Don't worry about mum," Fred said.

"Yeah," George continued, "all our business will be under the table." Harry wanted to protest again but he was stopped.

"C'mon Harry," Fred said, getting strangely serious, "if your not going to take this for your self then take it to make us feel better." George nodded with his brother.

Harry sighed. "So your mother won't find out?" the twins shook their heads, "Aright then. How much?"

George beamed at him, "Fifteen percent, no more no less. We'll send it straight to your account."

"Ten Percent," Harry said.

"You drive a hard bargain," Fred said, "but we accept." Harry shook hands with the twins and their deal was done.

"Now lets go get some breakfast," George said. Harry agreed and followed the twins down to the dining room.

"So business is good then?" Harry asked conversationally.

"Yep," Fred answered, "we already put Gambol and Japes out of business."

Harry let out a low whistle. "Already?"

"Yep," George continued, "and we're going to put in a new shop in Hogsmeade, opens on Halloween night."

"You and the others ought to come down there," Fred continued.

"I don't know," Harry said warily, "it might be kind of hard for all of us to get out."

Both twins stopped. "Do my ears deceive me?" George asked in false surprise, "Is Harry Potter afraid to try and get sneak out of school?"

"That can't be!" Fred exclaimed, "The Gryffndor poster boy showing fear?"

"Alright," Harry said, "We'll be there. Although it will probably be hard to convince Hermione to come."

They continued their walk and made it to the dining room. Harry was quite surprised to see it very full. Over the past week it had mainly been Harry and the Weasley children who ate meals but this time many members of the Order were sitting there, some who he hadn't seen before. He made his way to the table and sat down, greeting anyone he recognized.

"Why are there so many people here?" He asked Ron out the corner of his mouth.

"I don't know," the red head mumbled just as quietly, "Fred and George reckon there's going to be a big meeting."

"This'll be the first one won't it?" Harry asked as he began to eat the food Mrs. Weasley had brought him.

"Yeah, this'll be the first one that I know of, but Fred and George think that they've been having meetings in the middle of the night while we sleep." Harry contemplated this news. It seemed like the Order was going to be having their first big meeting. All week he had been eager for information, but no one would give him any.

He checked around to make sure no one was listening. "This could be our chance for some information."

"Yeah."

Fred and George sat down across the table. "Got a plan yet?" Fred asked.

"Plan?" Harry inquired.

"Well we can't just let them have a meeting and leave us out of it can we?" George clarified. Harry just smirked at both of them.

"We shouldn't talk about it here," Harry muttered. The twins and Ron nodded and they all finished their breakfast in silence. When they had all finished they made their way back up to Harry's room, as they passed through the living room two figures appeared with a pop. The three teenage boys stopped their trek to inspect the two females who had just appeared. Harry was instantly able to recognize the bright pink hair of Tonks and the bushy brown hair of his other best friend Hermione Granger. Harry didn't have time to react as Hermione darted toward him and wrapped her arms around him in a tight, friendly hug.

"Er-Hello Hermione," Harry said, returning the hug albeit without as mush enthusiasm.

"Oh Harry, how are you?" she asked loosening the tight hold she had around him, "have you been getting along fine?"

"Yeah I'm fine," he answered.

Ron cleared his throat loudly, "Chopped liver am I?"

"Oh Ron," Hermione said, giving him a less bone crunching hug.

"Wotcher Harry," Tonks said shaking Harry's hand. The odd metamorphmagus had a strange look in her eye as Harry greeted her, but she left before he could even figure out what it was.

"Now that the pleasantries are out of the way how about we discuss those plans of ours." George said. Hermione gave Ron and Harry a questioning look but they just told her to follow them. They made their way up the stairs and George got Ginny from her room. They entered Harry's room and the boys filled in the girls on what they wanted to do.

"So you want to spy on the Order meeting?" Hermione asked.

"Yep," Fred answered, "You aren't going to try and stop us are you?"

"No," she replied with a sigh, "but the only question I have is 'How'?" All the teenagers traded looks. They each had a feeling that spying on the Order of the Phoenix wouldn't be as easy as it used to be.

* * *

Theres Chapter 3. Please Read and Review.


	4. Mission Accomplished?

Disclaimer: If you notice it from any of the books then it belongs to JKR and her publishers.

Chapter 4Mission Accomplished?

"Are you guys sure about this? If we get caught we're in big trouble. I mean, I'm sure-,"

"Hermione?"

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Grrr."

"Now, as I was saying earlier."

"Actually Fred, I believe it was me who was speaking earlier."

"Oh, is that so? Please continue."

"This mission of ours is very simple and we-as the leaders-have total confidence in it."

"Wait! Why are you two the leader?"

"Because little brother-"

"-We are the ones who came up with the plan."

"So? I think Harry-"

"AS I was saying-"

"Actually, it was me who was speaking George."

"Oh really? Continue on the."

"As I was saying, we-the leaders-have full confidence in this mission and you. You all know you jobs, right?"

"With the way you two wont shut up, it would be hard not to."

"We heard that Ginny."

"I know."

"Anyways, lets go through this one more time. Hermione-"

HARRY POTTER AND THE BOOK OF HOMUNCULUS

"_- Your job is reconnaissance. We need you to find out just how that weird ass door to the meeting room works."_

"Yes George," Hermione exasperatedly said in to her palm, "we've only went over this twenty times already."

"_Hey,"_ the voice of George said sounded in Hermione's hidden ear piece, _"don't get fresh with me, young lady."_

Hermione let out a groan and ignored the chattering voice in her ear. She stood on the second floor where the mysterious door to the meeting room was supposed to be. The door had yet to make an appearance but she kept watch under the lie of waiting for Ginny to get out of the bathroom.

"Psst," a voice hissed from behind Hermione, the bathroom, "have you seen the door yet?"

Hermione sighed in frustration, "No Ginny, I already told you I would let you know when I saw it, so stop asking me already."

"Sorry," Ginny apologized for behind the bathroom door, "It's just that this is really boring."

"Yeah, I know," Hermione agreed, leaning against the bathroom door, "This isn't what I had planned for my first day back with my friends."

Ginny giggled.

Hermione closed her eyes and began thinking about things more exciting than spying on secret organization, things like complex arithmancy equations. It was as the Professor Vector of her mind complimented her on her fabulous work on the hardest artihmancy problem ever that Fred or George decided to interrupt speak.

"_Hey Hermione, has the door opened yet?"_

The dreamy smile that had spread across her face faded at her fantasy's interruption. She began to get tell George (or Fred) off for when she saw that for some reason the door had indeed appeared and a very unwelcome figure was stepping out of it.

"Granger," Mad-Eye shouted gruffly as he made his way towards her with one eye squinted in suspicion, "what are you doing here?"

"I was waiting for the bathroom," Hermione lied smoothly.

"What? What don't you use the other one downstairs?"

"Downstairs?" she questioned, " I just got here, I didn't know there were two bathrooms."

"Well then, I-" Moody began but the stopped both his eyes not set straight and staring into the bathroom. He walked forward, pushed past Hermione and yanked the bathroom door open without so much as a knock.

"EKKK!" Ginny shirked as she jumped off the bathroom floor, toppling the house of cards she had built in the process. She stood there in the bathroom with a surprised look on her face as Mad-Eye glared at her with both eyes.

"What's goin-" Mad-Eye began, but before he could finish his sentence Ginny had gathered up her courage and began a tirade that would have put her mother to shame.

"HOW DARE YOU WALK IN ON ME LIKE THAT? I COULD HAVE BEEN DOING ANYTHING AND YOU JUST COME HERE WHITOUT EVEN THE DECENCY TO KNOCK. I BET YOU USED THAT EYE OF YOURS TO SEE WHAT I WAS DOING, DIDN'T YOU. FRED AND GEORGE WERE RIGHT; YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A FILTHY PERVERT. I SWEAT THAT WHEN MY MOTHER FINDS OUT SHE'S GOING TO GIVE YOU WHAT FOR."

Ginny's shouting continued and Mad-Eye stood dumbfounded. Any accusations that he had thought about throwing at her were lost as she continued to yell at him.

Ginny kept on yelling and yelling and Mad-Eye was too busy to notice something much more nefarious going on behind his back. In his rush to be nosy and suspicious he had left the door to the Order meeting room open. Hermione stood before it with a piece of parchment and a quill. She copied down all the runes she could find and performed a diagnostic spell. She took down a few more notes before pocketing the parchment and heading away from Ginny's loud shouting and toward the base of operations aka Harry's room.

Mission Accomplished.

HPatBoH

"Good job Hermione, very good job."

"And lets not forget our wonderful sister and her fantastic distraction."

"Heh, heh. Yeah… Distraction."

"What? That whole yelling match wasn't a giant distraction so Hermione could study the enchantments on that door?"

"Er… of course it was."

"It wasn't was it?"

"Oh that's rich!"

"Well, what did you expect me to do? He just walked in one me while I was in the bathroom."

"Ginny, you were playing cards."

"That's not the point Hermione. I could have been showering or using the toilet. That man's nothing but a filthy pervert."

"Ok Gin, I think-"

"I'm serious! I swear I saw him checking out my bum with that eye of his."

"Okay Gin, we-"

"And then I KNOW he was looking at Tonks."

"Alright, we need t-"

"And then this one tim-"

"ENOUGH ABOUT OLD PERVERTS! WE HAVE SECRET ORGANIZATIONS TO SPY ON!"

"… Sorry."

"Ahem! As I was saying, good job to the both of you."

"Thank you."

"Thanks."

"Now Hermione, you say you recognize this spell?"

"Pffft, of course she does."

"Shut up Ron."

"Hey! She can't just-"

"Seriously Ron, shut up. Continue Hermione."

"Thank you. As I was saying, I do, in fact, recognize his spell."

"So you can tell us how to get in there?"

"No Harry, I'm afraid it's not that simple."

"How come?"

"The spell only allows those who the caster wants to be allowed. Of course, like all spells this one has a counter, but it is much too complex for even me."

"GASP!"

"SHUT UP RON!"

TWACK!

"Oy! That hurt"

"Then shut up and let Hermione continue."

"Thank you George."

"I'm Fred."

"Whatever. Anyways, even if we did know the counter spell, I doubt any of us would be able to take apart a spell cast by Dumbledore."

"Hmmm. It seems we'll have to go with plan B.

"We have a plan B?"

"Of course we do."

"This 'Plan B", it wouldn't happen to involve me waiting in front of the door for possible hours under my invisibility cloak, would it?"

"It might."

"Ugh."

"Come one Harry, you want information, don't you? That's what I thought. Now get that cloak and get into position. You too Ron and Ginny. You remember you jobs, right?"

"Yes, we're the-"

HPatBoH

"_-Distraction. Its your job make sure no one's attention is on Harry and the door."_

"Okay Fred, we got it the first fifty times you told us." Ron mumbled frustrated into his had.

"… _This is George."_

"Whatever, just shut up." When no more noise came out of his hidden, magical earpiece he let a sigh on content. He sat in the living area with Ginny. It was empty except for them and Mad-Eye. All the other Order members had gathered in the kitchen. Ginny sat next to him on the couch, 'reading' a book with a very ugly look on her face. "Psst, Gin" Ron hissed, leaning closer to his sister so he didn't have to raise his voice, "your book is upside down."

"Huh? Oh… right," she muttered. She flipped her book over and continued reading with that same fowl look.

"What's with that look on you face?"

"Huh?"

"You've got that really ugly look on your face like someone's holding something rotten right under your nose."

"Ron, that's not a very nice thing to say to girl."

Ron shrugged, "Who are you? Hermione? Just answer the question."

Ginny took a quick glance over her shoulder and answered with the fowl look back in place, "It's Mad-Eye. He's been watching me since we sat down.

Ron chuckled quietly to himself. "Com off it, little sister. I'm sure he's got better things to do then peep at you."

Ginny frowned, "I'm being serious here. Look at him, he's had _both_ eyes on men since we both got in here."

Ron looked back and saw that Moody was still staring at them. "I'm sure he doing something-uh less perverted than it seems."

"Pfft, sure he is," she shook with a disgusted shudder, "all the times he could have looked at me. When I'm eating, when I'm showering, when we're training. UGH!"

"Come on Gin." Ron tried to reason, "I'm sure he's just made at you for shouting at him earlier."

"I doubt-"

"_Ron, Ginny. Stop talking about old, perverted aurors. Harry might be needing soon."_

"Fred, this is serious business!" Ginny responded, "I don't like him sitting there staring at me like that."

"_He can give you nice slap on the bum for all I care. As long as he's kept busy."_

"Ah! How dare you say that? I-"

"_Oops! Sorry Ginny, gotta go. Make sure to cause a good distraction."_

"UGH!"

"Well, you heard him," Ron said, "We need to cause a distraction."

"'Nice slap on the bum' how dare he say that." Ginny muttered to herself, ignoring Ron.

"Ginny!"

"Huh? What?"

"We need to cause a distraction."

"Oh… right."

"I was think we cou-" Ron began a plan but was cut off.

"I'VE TOLE YOU ALREADY _RONALD!" _Ginny shouted, standing up from her seat and pointing an accusing finger at Ron. "DEAN AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER WHETER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!" Suddenly the entire house was quiet. Moody stared at the two with wide, shocked eyes. A few Order members poked their heads out of the kitchen to see what was going on. And somewhere up stairs laughter could be heard.

"Um… Ginny?" Ron began, "I'm not sure if-"

"UGHHH!" Ginny roared as if infinitely frustrated by something. "I'M TIRED OF YOUR CRAP."

"What the hell Ginny-?" Whatever else Ron was going to say was cut short by smacking noise as Ginny had slapped him across the face and into the floor. The audience the two siblings had gathered was shocked into immobility.

Ron slowly stood up with a hand rubbing his cheek. He stared at his sister disbelievingly and she returned his look of disbelief with one of defiance. Her chest was heaving, her cheeks were flustered and her eyes were wild. The look of disbelief on Ron's face was washed away and replaced with a look of anger.

Without warning he launched himself at his much smaller sister and tackled her to the ground. They began to wrestle on the ground; smacking each other, pulling at each other's hair and continuing to shout at each other. Their audience eventually moved into action and tried to pry the warring siblings apart but it proved harder than it should have. Soon the whole house would descend upon the two and try and break up their fight. Effectively drawing attention away from the door and the young man in front of it.

Mission Accomplished.

HPatBoH

"_And so I told her 'that's not my wand, I'm just happy to see you'"_

"…" Silence.

"_Don't you get it Harry? It's funny because a wand can so easily be confused with a-"_

"I get it George," Harry interrupted the explanation of the crude joke.

"Oh, well then you should learn to develop a sense of humor cause that one was a killer."

"Whatever," Harry muttered uninterestedly, "when are Ginny and Ron going to start their distraction?"

"Fred just talked to them, so it should be any minute now."

George was true to his word as a high-pitched shout echoed through the house for the second time that day as soon as his sentence had ended.

Harry couldn't help but smirk; George had erupted into uproarious laughter.

It wasn't long after Ginny's shout that Harry heard thudding footstep from behind the blank 'wall' in front of him. The footsteps stopped, the door opened and Kingsley Shacklebolt stood tall in the doorway in front of an invisible Harry.

"What the devil was that?" he asked to the 'empty' hallway. Another shout from Ginny answered his question. "Bloody kids. Can't keep their hormones in control." He ran off towards the commotion and shut the door behind him, but not before an invisible Harry could make his way through.

Harry stood in the narrow staircase that led to the order meeting room. It was empty. He put his hand to his mouth and talked into it. "I'm in."

"_Really? You're in the meeting room already?"_

"Not yet. I still have to go up these stairs."

"_Stairs? I thought this place only had two stories."_

"Apparently not."

"_All right, I'm sure you know what to do. Once you get into the meeting room, we will need to cut off communication, so don't talk to us."_

"Right. I'm out."

"_Good Luck."_

Harry slowly began to make his way up the set of stairs. He reached the top and found that the door to the meeting room had thankfully been left open. He made his way into the room and was only half surprised to find it occupied by one person: Albus Dumbledore. Harry ignored the old man who just so happened to be looking right at him and began to make his way into a place where he was less likely to be bumped into by Order members.

"Did you truly thin I didn't expect this?" Dumbledore spoke out in a quite voice that seemed to fill the whole room. Harry stopped what he was doing and slowly turned around and stared at the man who stared right back. "Did you think I wouldn't be prepared for the deviously genius minds of the Weasley Twins or for that cloak you're wearing.

Harry looked down at himself to make sure that he was still invisible and found that he was. But, somehow Dumbledore could still see him.

"Come now Harry, surely you didn't think such a simple plan could fool me." He smiled a smile that was fool of ego. A smile that only made Harry mad.

Harry decided to pull his hood back, revealing his head floating in mid air. His floating face glared at Dumbledore. "I just wanted information."

"And did I not promise to keep you informed just a month ago."

"You did, but I figured this would be a better way to get the full truth."

Dumbledore's small smile melted into a frown. "It pains me that you would think that way." Harry didn't say anything. He just continued to glare at the old man. They stayed like that for a while. Harry's hard green eyes glaring into Dumbledore's soft blue ones. Eventually the sound of feet could be heard coming up the stairs. The person came to the top of the stairs and stopped behind Harry.

"Dumbledore, the two kids have been stopped and the others were found in Potter's room with these."

Dumbledore finally broke eye contact with Harry and looked at the tall, black auror behind him. In his hand Kingsley held a sting that had a magical earpiece on one end and a magical microphone of sorts on the other. The same device Harry and the others had been using to communicate all this time.

"Ah, what curious devices. The work of the Weasley Twins, no doubt."

"Yes, modeled after those muggle devices, I'd assume."

"Very good Kingsley. Take Harry back to the others and make sure none of them leave their rooms."

"What about their punishment?"

"I shall deal with that later."

"Very well, lets go Potter."

Harry fully removed his invisibility cloak and took off the communication device without being asked. He tossed both items to Kingsley and made his way downstairs without being led. He made the short walk to his room but Kingsley stopped him from opening the door.

"That was a very foolish thing you tried." Kingsley said as he stared Harry directly in the eyes. Harry stared back, not wanting a lecture but still listening all the same, "But sometimes it takes foolishness to counteract more foolishness." Harry raised an eyebrow in surprise, "whether Dumbledore acknowledges it or not you will be involved in this war and to survive you are going to need information. If Dumbledore won't give you that information then it's up to you to get it for yourself." Kingsley gave him a smirk, "Next time, try harder." Then, he opened the door, pushed Harry in and closed it and locked it with a splorching sound.

"Harry stood in his room for a few seconds, shocked from what Kingsley had just said. It wasn't until he noticed all his friends looking at him expectantly that he realized he had some news to report.

Without saying a word Harry gave his friends a thumbs up and a large smile. They all let out a quite cheer and hugging a hand slapping was traded all around as in the Order room something went on unseen. Something lie under the table that hadn't been there before. That something was a snake by the name of Danny and wrapped around his slender snake body was a Wireless Ear that happened to be transmitting to a couple of sneaky teenagers.

Mission Accomplished.

* * *

Next Time on Harry Potter and the Book of Homunculus: Elementals? Alchemists? Powerful wizards are going missing and Voldemort seems to be the one to blame. What is the Order's plans to stop this from happening and why should it be any of Harry's business. Training continues and Dumbledore deals out punishement. All of this next time in chapter five of HPatBoH: _Foreshadowing Meetings._

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	5. Foreshadowing Meetings

**Disclaimer: **Anything you recognize from the books belongs to JKR and her publishers, not me.

**Authors Note:** I would like to dedicate this chapter to a couple of people. First of all: **fugirt, Dracobolt, and Conspirator46** for being my _only _reviewers. I would also like to thank **Dracoblot, jon3776, Lord or All, Nevarine of the Ashlanders, and ratchet freak **for adding this story to their alert list. Finally, I would like to thank **Disco Jesus **for adding this story to his favorites and **Packed Mule **for adding me to his C2 _Enjoyable Stories Made Easy to Find. _Thanks to all these people.

**Chapter Five: **Foreshadowing Meeting

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" George crowed as he threw himself to the ground and pulled something out from under Harry's bed, "I can't believe this worked, this is amazing."

Ron stopped in mid high five with Harry, causing the dark haired boy to stumble and nearly fall. "Wait!" Ron shouted at George over the noise of Ginny, Hermione and Fred. "This was _your_ plan and _you_ didn't even believe it would work?"

George ignored Ron and focused more on the object he had gotten from under Harry's bed. The object was an ear the size of a persons palm and many flesh colored strings extended from its center. George was busily poking at it with his wand. After quite a serious jab with his wand sparks shot out of the ear. "We get signal!" George suddenly shouted.

Fred abruptly broke out of the three-way hug with Hermione and Ginny, pointed at the ear on Harry's bed and struck a dramatic pose. "Main ear turn on!" he shouted foolishly.

With that done, he bounded toward the bed and jumped on it. He and George both got a flesh colored string and stuck it in their ears. The other teens followed the twin's example and got on the bed and stuck a string in their ear.

"Everything said during the meeting will be transmitted to this ear." George said with a triumphant smirk.

"You can find this and all other equipment used in this amazingly planed mission at Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes." Fred recited in the voice of a well-trained spokesperson.

"Promise to use them for bad deeds and-" George tried to continue, but was cut off by a shush from Hermione.

"I think it's starting," she hissed.

And indeed the voice of Albus Dumbledore could be heard through the ear.

----HPatBoH----

"Thank you all for coming." Dumbledore greeted as he looked out at the faces of the Order members, "I hope none of you were inconvenienced with the time or place of this meeting?"

_General murmurings._

"You know we would rather be here than anywhere else." Spoke one voice above the rest.

Dumbledore focused his gaze on the young, pink haired auror who had spoken up. "I'm glad to here it Nymphadora," a flinch from Tonks, "but I'm sure you can't wait to get off medical leave and start working for the ministry."

Tonks made a sound of dismissal, "Sure I would." She replied with obvious sarcasm.

_A few chuckles around the room_.

The Room.

Dumbledore looked around The Room. At all the faces. Some of them old, some of them new, but all of them familiar and all of them friends. Friends fighting for the same goal, fighting to get rid of the same evil. The venerable wizard couldn't help but admire it.

The Order.

_His _Order.

"Well, I am sure Cornelius will be glad to have you back nonetheless." Dumbledore said, not missing a beat of the conversation.

Tonks rolled her eyes.

"Now I believe some of you have reports to give. Any volunteers for first?" a weathered hand has held in the air. "Ah, Remus. Go ahead."

The tired old werewolf leaned forward on the table. The war of brown versus silver that was his hair color seemed to have been won by the silver, which now covered a good three-fourths of his hair. He had dark bags under his eyes and his robes were even worse than ever. They looked as if they hadn't been cleaned in a while and had various rips and tears in places. "I'm afraid there isn't much to report today Albus." he spoke in the dull voice of a defeated man, "Greyback is still being stubborn. There were Death Eaters in The Cave the other day and he seemed more interesting in them than me. And they weren't even werewolves. Perhaps if Fudge would stop pushing to reinstate the Hunters Guild then maybe he would be more interested in our deal."

"I understand my friend," Dumbledore said, "I have tried and tried, but Cornelius still seems to want to do things his own way."

"You would think he would want your help after you were proved right about ol' snake face." Emmeline Vance spoke.

"Yes," Dumbledore agreed, "That would be a logical decision, but it seems Cornelius doesn't live his life by logic

_More chuckles. Dumbledore remains straight faced._

"Is that all Remus?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," the werewolf answered with a kind of defeated sigh. "I'll keep trying of course."

Dumbledore nodded, "Of course," he took a good look at Remus and added slowly, "Although I do think you could use a break."

"Nonsense, I'll-" Remus tried to refuse, but was cut off.

"It would be for the best Remus," Dumbledore said, "Don't worry, you are not the only werewolf I know. I'm sure my other young friend wouldn't mind helping me out."

Remus seemed to think it over for minute. "Well," he began hesitantly, "if you insist-"

"And I do."

"Then I guess I'll take a few days off."

"Excellent, spend your time well, friend," Dumbledore said with a wink in Remus's direction, "Now, I believe someone else had a report to give? Severus? Go on then."

The slimy potions master sat on the far end of the table, away from the headmaster. He was dressed in typical Snape fashion with his robes as dark as the dungeons he chose as his home. His hair was just as greasy as ever and his face seemed to reflect a constant bad mood. He cleared his voice before speaking, "I'm afraid the Dark Lord still doesn't place his full trust in me. I have-"

"He still doesn't trust you!" A skeptical order member called out, " I thought you fixed that problem already."

The bad look on Snape's face deepened as he seemed to use all his will power to stop himself from shouting at the man who interrupted.

"What do you expect of me Podmore?" Snape hissed, "How exactly do you expect me to win the favor of the Dark Lord? Surely even you, with your minimal intelligence, knows it's not something easily done."

Sturgis Podmore still gave Snape a suspicious stare. "Well you obviously aren't trying hard enough, you hardly ever have any new information"

Snape retuned the suspicious stare with a malicious sneer. " 'Not trying hard enough'," Snape repeated the words as if they were utter madness, "If I were to try harder that would mean the death and torture of innocents. Even you must realize that."

"Well I'm sure there are-" Sturgis was cut off.

"Gentlemen," Dumbledore spoke with a powerful force, "I will not have your squabbles at _this_ table. Now, both of you calm down so we can continue on with this meeting."

Both men settled down at the calm yet powerful voice of their leader.

"Very good," Dumbledore said, "Now, continue on Severus."

Snape gave the old headmaster a nod and Sturgis remained quiet. "Thank you headmaster. As I said, the Dark Lord doesn't place his full trust in me, but luckily those he does place his trust in are foolishly loose lipped."

"And what is it that you have learned?" Dumbledore asked in genuine interest.

"Not as much as you are hoping for, I'm sure. He is still continuing his secret projects. I can't say for sure what it is that he is doing, but I believe I have an accurate assumption?"

"Assumption?" Mad-Eye grunted from his seat at the table, "you know what they say about assuming, don't ya lad?"

Snape looked at Moody with his patented sneer. Moody returned it with an un-phased look, "And you think you have better information, Alastor? Last I checked, you were here baby sitting a bunch of teenagers while the rest of us were out risking our necks." That got a reaction from Moody. He stood up quickly and with more grace than one would expect from a man his age. His wand was trained on Snape's heart. The other Order members didn't move, shocked by this sudden move of aggression.

"What was that, _boy_?" Mad-Eye hissed thorough gritted teeth, "I don't think I heard you correctly."

Snape slowly made his way to stand up and also began reaching for his wand, all without saying one word. Just as his hand had wrapped around the hilt, Dumbledore intervened yet again.

"Gentlemen!" He exclaimed in shock, "This is the second outburst today, I _will not_ have this nonsense in my Order! Now, settle down!"

Everyone looked between Dumbledore and the two upstarts. A few other members had also reached for their wand in case things got ugly, but it wasn't needed. Ever so slowly Snape put his hands in a non-aggressive position and sat down, never breaking eye contact with Moody. Once Snape had sat down Moody also slowly put his wand a way and lowered himself into his seat. With both men seated the tension in the room dissipated and people in the room relaxed.

"Now," Dumbledore said firmly, "I _will not_ have any more quarrels. Is that understood?" The entirety of the meeting room nodded and made noises of affirmation. "Very good. Now Severus, continue."

Snape took one last look towards Moody before continuing. "As I was saying, I have an assumption that the Dark Lord may once again be seeking immortality." He pronounced with a note of solemnity and finality.

The room was silent. Many people seemed to be contemplating the idea. The silence reined until: "Bah," Moody grunted, taking a swig of his flask, "and this is supposed to be news?" he looked towards Dumbledore, "What's the point in wasting time and resources on a spy amongst the enemy if this is the best we got?"

Dumbledore gave Moody a stern look, "Alastor, I will not have you belittle the jobs of your colleagues like that." Moody made to retort but Dumbledore didn't give him the chance as he went back to talking to Snape, "What is it that makes you think Voldemort is furthering his research in immortality, Severus?"

"Two day's ago I was given orders by the Dark Lord to gather some objects for what I assumed was a potion, but the ingredients I was told to gather did not make a stable potion. But, I delivered the ingredients to the instructed place as I was told, and it was at that location that I saw Tieh Hou, the Chinese alchemist who went missing weeks ago."

Everyone was silent. Their faces held looks of extreme shock. Dumbledore looked as if one of his worst nightmares had come true.

Then the muttering began.

"Tieh Hou? They really have him?" Spoke one Order member.

"Isn't he supposed to be the best alchemist since Flamel?" another asked.

"I thought he was supposed to be in hiding." Came the voice of another.

"If You-Know-Who has him, maybe he's after the Elixir of Life."

"Of course he is. What are you? Some kind of idiot?"

As a minute passed the independent conversation grew louder and louder and there was no control over it as Dumbledore sat in a kind of trance. Eventually he fazed back into reality and saw that the meeting room was devoid of any kind of order.

"Quiet!" He shouted over the dull roar of the various conversations going on, "Quiet, my friends!" He shouted once again, but it still had no affect. After another minute and more shouting Dumbledore managed to retain order over his Order. "Now," he said in his calm voice as if nothing out of ordinary had happened, "Severus, are you sure it was Tieh Hou you saw?"

Snape nodded. "I am very familiar with this man and his teachings. I am certain it was him."

The look on Dumbledore's face was as grave as ever, "My, this is bad. Voldemort-" A flinch from a majority of the room, "-could very well get his hands on the Elixir of Life."

"But I thought only you and Flamel knew how to mix the Elixir of Life." Tonks spoke up.

Dumbledore nodded, "That is true, Nymphadora, but Tieh Hou is a very talented and with the right… _motivation_ he might just be able to unlock the secret of the Elixir of Life."

"And I guess a wand held up against you is 'the right motivation'?" Tonks asked.

"Indeed, it is."

"But we can't rule out the chance that he is willingly teaming up with You-Know-Who," Spoke the deep voice of Kingsley Shacklebolt.

"While your input is appreciated, Kingsley," Dumbledore said, "I have known Tieh Hou for many years- in fact I spoke to him just a few months ago- and he would never willingly join Voldemort. I know you have never met him but him joining Voldemort willingly is just as preposterous as me joining him."

Kingsley nodded in understanding. "I see," he said, "So what are we going to do? If he is as good as you say then we can't just leave him there."

Dumbledore let out a defeated sigh, a sign that made many people in the room uncomfortable. "I'm afraid leaving him there is all that we can do. We have neither the time nor the resources to help him. He will just have to try and escape by himself."

"But what about the Elixir of life?" Kingsley asked, "If You-Know-Who is allowed to get his hands on that then we will be in an even worse position than before."

"Yes, my friend, I understand. I will think of a plan, I will just need some time. For now, let us put it in the back of our minds."

Everyone seemed to accept that as an acceptable action for now, although Moody could be heard muttering under his breath about something.

"Now," Dumbledore began, "is there anything else you have to add, Severus?"

"Yes, sir." Snape said, "I believe you know the origin of the man who attacked Potter a week ago?"

"Yes. He was a member of the Wizarding Mafia, was he not?"

There was a collection of shocked muttering at the mention of the Mafia. Apparently, not many people had been briefed.

"The Wizarding Mafia," Hestia Jones spoke up, "I thought that was just a urban legend."

"I'm afraid not young Hestia," Dumbledore spoke to the dark haired witch, "the Wizarding Mafia is very real, as I'm sure Kingsley will tell you."

Kingsley nodded. "As Dumbledore said, the Wizarding Mafia is very real. I've dealt with them on quite a few occasions. They aren't as bad as Death Eaters, they usually tend to commit crimes that involve Galleons instead of random murder, but they are still no laughing matter."

There was even more shocked muttering.

"Yes," Snape said, taking control of the meeting table again, "The man who was hired to kill Harry Potter was a Hit Wizard for the Wizarding Mafia. But, as you all know, he failed and the Dark Lord doesn't take kindly to failure."

"Was he killed?" Asked a random Order member.

"If you would let me finish." Snape hissed, "He was followed by a group of Death Eaters. When he got to his home his family was attacked, tortured and killed; all while he watched. Then he was brought back to the Dark Lord and his torture was continued. Strangely the Dark Lord decided not to kill him and actually let him go."

There was shock amongst the table. But Dumbledore seemed to understand what was going on.

"The Wizarding Mafia believes in very strong family ties," Dumbledore explained, "For that man, seeing his entire family tortured and killed while he watched helplessly was a fate worse than death."

"Yes," Snape continued, "When the man made it back to the Don and told him what happened, the Don was outraged. He has now declared a war against The Dark Lord and his Death Eaters."

"Oh my," Dumbledore said in slight shock, "that is very bad."

"Bad?" Moody barked, "What's so bad about it? Let them fight with each other and kill each other off. It makes our job easier."

"No," Dumbledore said, shaking his head, "we must not allow that to happen Alastor; many innocents could lose their lives."

Moody just shrugged and went back to mumbling to his self.

Dumbledore was silent for a long while. He stared down into the table as if he were examining the wood for something. None of the Order members bothered him, as they had grown quite used to this happening. Times like these meant that Dumbledore was doing some quick planning. It was a few minutes before he spoke again.

"We will need some one with strong connections to the Mafia to infiltrate them," He spoke to his Order, "Normally finding such a person would be an impossible task, but luckily for us we already have one." He focused his sight on the part of the table that seemed to be enveloped in a haze of smoke. The smoke was slowly cleared a way by the waving of a small hand and Mundungus Fletcher was revealed to be occupying the space.

"Me, Dumbledore?" Mundungus asked, pointing a finger to himself, "I ain't got no connection to the Mafia. What do you think I am? Some… kind…of…crook?" He slowly trailed off as he saw the looks everyone seemed to be giving him.

"Don't worry Mundungus, we all know we have associations with a … seedier crowd. Why do you think you are apart of this Order?"

Mundungus scratched his head of scraggly hair. "I though it was my amazing dueling skills," He said lamely, causing everyone to laugh. Once the quick bout of laughter settled down he let out a defeated sigh. "All right, I'll do it for ya Dumbledore."

"Very good, see me after the meeting for a more detailed briefing." He turned his look back to Snape. "Was there anything else, Severus?"

"Nothing we don't already know." The potions master replied.

"Very good," Dumbledore nodded, "Now, I believe Hestia has something to report."

The young dark haired witch began shuffling through her parchment. "Nothing terribly exciting going on in my department." She said, "I've got a small batch of new recruits ready to join. So whenever your ready to initiate them let me know, sir."

"Of course," Dumbledore said, "We will have to get it done before the school year starts or it may never happen."

"Yes, sir," she replied, "just give me an exact date and I'll get them ready."

"Indeed, do you have anything else to report?"

"No sir, nothing else."

"Then there are no more reports to give, correct?" Dumbledore asked.

No one answered.

"Then it is time to discuss a problem that has come to my attention. As you may know, I am considered somewhat powerful and influential in the Wizarding world."

A few people chuckled.

"As such, I have made some equally powerful and influential friends. One such man has been a valuable partner and friend of mine for many years. His name is Erik Hoffen. Some of you may recognize him for he is famous for being the last surviving elemental.

There was some shocked muttering.

"He was also one of the many wizards with me during the battle that lead to Grindelwalds fall."

More shocked muttering.

"As I said, he has always been a valued friend of mine and just recently he was approached by Death Eaters and offered the chance to join. Normally this wouldn't have been a problem for him but one of the Death Eaters happened to be holding his beloved child at wand point. My dear friend cares deeply for his family and would do anything to ensure their safety, even join Lord Voldemort."

"He didn't join, did he?" One Order member cried out.

"No," Dumbledore answered, "he was luckily able to find a way to chase them off but he still fears their return and what they might do to his family. I have promised him that we will keep watch over his family for him, as I believe it is the only way to keep him from joining Voldemort. Those of you who would like to volunteer for the job of protecting Erik's family, please see me after this meeting. Now, the tragic story of my friend leads us into even more pressing matters. I have been keeping an eye out on the recruitment of Voldemorts forces and have found an interesting trend. Voldemort seems to be going after the more powerful mages. Already some of the most powerful of our kind have been propositioned by his forces. Some have even given in. Erik and Tieh are only a few examples. Through my connections I have found out that the most powerful Ninjutsu master of Japan has been propositioned, as was a great African Shaman. We must put a stop to this. I would like your ideas."

The room was silent for a moment before Tonks spoke.

"Well it's kind of obvious, isn't it?" The pink auror began, "we just need to get to these guys before You-Know-Who."

The leader of the Order nodded towards the young Auror. "Yes Nymphadora, that is the most obvious plan, but also the most flawed."

Tonks' face fell.

"The biggest problem is that many of these wizards don't care about Voldemort. Many of them don't care about joining this organization. Sure, we could try and offer them membership, but many of them wouldn't be interested. Any other ideas?"

This time a voice came from behind the haze of smoke. "Well then, we just gotta send them some protection, make sure no Death Eaters don't get 'em."

"Another good plan," Dumbledore said, "but just as equally flawed as the first. The problem with this plan is that we do not have the resources needed to send out protection to these people. And even if we did they would not except it because most of them don't think they need it."

"With great power comes great ego." Kingsley said.

"Exactly. Any other ideas?"

Everything was quiet. Everyone seemed to be trying to come up with a good plan.

When no ideas came, Kingsley spoke again, "Just what will we do, Dumbledore?"

Dumbledore let out a defeated sigh. "I'm afraid there is no plan. There is nothing effective we can do with the number of men and resources we have. If Minister Fudge was a bit more cooperative things would not be so bad, but…" he trailed off.

"But Minister Fudge is a complete idiot." Moody finished for him.

"Yes." Was all that came from Dumbledore's mouth.

Everything was silent for a moment.

Then Dumbledore spoke: "I believe that is all that we are going to accomplish for today. Meeting over!"

For a moment there was no movement. Then one member got up, followed by another and the room was slowly emptied.

---HPatBoH---

Remus Lupin made his way out of the house and towards the apparition point that had been set up in the back yard. He made it outside into the warm dark night. Mostly everyone had already left as Remus had stayed after the meeting and talked with Dumbledore for a while. As he stepped outside a few friends shouted a farewell to him before they apparated away.

"Bye Remus! Have a nice break."

He returned their farewell with one of his own, "Thank you, have a nice night."

He stood on the back porch for a few minutes alone. Starring at the sky, or more specifically the moon, which was half-full.

"Yes, have a nice break _wolf._" Droned a slimy voice from the shadows. "Use it well."

Remus didn't even turn around, "I was wondering what you were doing back there Snape, I was beginning to think you were just going to stand there all night."

Snape emerged from the shadows that he hid in. "Ah, of course you would notice, those enhanced senses of yours must come in handy quite often."

A sound strangely like a growl emanated form Remus's throat, but he didn't say anything. He just began to walk towards the apparition point.

"What's the matter Lupin," Snape asked as he followed the werewolf, "In a bad mood? I guess thats only a natural side effect of having to spend time being chummy with the man who cursed you for life. Or perhaps it's because your dog died."

Remus stopped and spun around with an unnatural speed. His wand was pointed between Snape's eyes before he could even blink. Snape showed no reaction. His face remained a calm mask with a small smirk that only served to infuriate Remus even more.

"The temper of a wolf." Snape hissed.

Remus continued to stare the potions master down with cold fury in his eyes. That strange growl once again came from his throat. The look on his face was reminiscent of a snarling wolf. After a long minute of hate filled glaring Remus stuffed his wand away quickly and without warning. He spun on his heel and made his way towards the apparition point.

"You just love to pick fights with people, don't you Snape?" Remus asked without looking back.

Snape watched as the werewolf made his way into the designated area and apparated away. "It's what keeps me alive." Snape hissed into the empty darkness.

He stood alone for a few minutes before also apparating away to his home.

---HPatBoH---

Downstairs in the Library a second meeting was taking place. A much smaller meeting that only included a few people. Those people were Kingsley Shacklebolt, Nymphadora Tonks, and Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody. Kingsley and Tonks sat at the reading table in the middle of the small library while Moody leaned against a bookcase drinking from his flask.

"So," Tonks began, "what did you think?

"Bloody useless!" Moody grunted bluntly.

Tonks looked towards the old auror and with a voice dripping with sarcasm said, "I love the way in which you speak so elegantly."

Kingsley chuckled deeply, "Despite his bluntness Moody is right."

" 'Bloody useless', " Tonks repeated with a questioning look, "it wasn't that bad."

"We were in that room for over an hour and what did we accomplish?"

"Well," Tonks said thinking, "we learned a lot of new info."

Kingsley nodded, "Yeah, we did." He agreed, "But what did we do with that information? What plans did we form? How did that meeting help us actually stop You-Know-Who?"

"You make it sound like we should be out there throwing curses at Death Eaters. What do you think this is? This isn't…" She trailed off.

"War?" Moody grunted. He pushed himself off the bookcase he was leaning on and looked Tonks in the face with both his eyes set firm. "I don't know where you've been lass, but this _is_ war. Battles are gonna be fought and people are gonna die. That's how it is." He turned around and made his way to the door. "I'm going to bed. See you in the morning." He walked out the door and left the Aurors alone.

Tonks sat with Kingsley for a while; both of them were absolutely quiet. Tonks had a look of intense thought on her face. Eventually, Kingsley left without a word, leaving Tonks alone with her thoughts.

---HPatBoH---

"Well," Hermione said, "That was…"

"Bloody useless?" Ron offered.

"Erm…Not exact-"

"Exactly," Harry said, cutting Hermione off. At the moment he was pacing his room. He was entirely frustrated with the way the meeting had gone.

"Now Harry," Hermione tried, "you know that's not true."

"Of course it's true," He said looking around at all of his friends, "we all heard the same meeting. The only thing that happened was a bunch of adults squabbling like children." Everyone in the room but Hermione seemed to agree with him.

Hermione stood up and faced Harry with her hands on her hips. "That's not true, they did lots of stuff."

"Like what?" Ginny asked from her position on the bed.

Hermione thought, "Like…" She faltered.

"_Exactly,_" Harry said.

Hermione groaned and sat back down, "All that time wasted…" She mumbled.

"I hope you aren't referring to our supremely superb plan as wasted time." Fred said.

"Because that plan was amazing." George continued.

"If we do say so ourselves."

"And we do."

"We hope you aren't dissatisfied with the plan Harry."

Harry shook his head, "Everything worked out perfectly. I'm just…disappointed in the meeting, is all."

Ron walked over and slapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, "I hear you mate," He said, "All that planning and work and hardly any new information."

"Yeah, I just-" Harry stopped. Footsteps could be heard outside the door. "Quick," he hissed at Fred and George, "Stash the stuff!"

His words were unneeded though because Fred and George-like the true pranksters they were-had already thrown the stuff under Harry's bed. Harry and Ron took random seats on the floor and tried to look nonchalant.

The door unlocked with a squelch and Dumbledore walked in. All six teenagers looked at the old wizard. No one said anything for a moment.

"What you attempted today was very wrong." Dumbledore began, "There are things said at those meeting that are of no concern to you and there was no reason for you to try and pull such dastardly tricks. For that wrong doing you four," he indicated Ron, Harry, Hermione, and Ginny, "shall receive a months detention with Professor Snape and Fifty House Points each will be deducted at the beginning of the school year."

He gazed at the teens for a reaction. There was none. They were all ready to face the consequences of their actions.

"Legally," he continued, "Neither I nor your parents have the right to punish you two," He spoke to Fred and George, "But as the owner of this house I reserve the right to forbid you access from now on."

The twins nodded with slightly depressed looks, "We'll be out of here by morning," Fred said.

Dumbledore nodded. "That will be all. I hope you have learned your lesson." He then turned and walked back out of the room.

Everything was quiet as the old wizard left. Harry looked towards the twins. They both had their eyes cast to the floor. Hermione was also starring at the two jokesters, as were Ron and Ginny. Harry sighed and opened his mouth to say something when both the twins' heads snapped up at the same time. Each had an identical grin.

"Well it was worth it!" George exclaimed.

"Definitely!" Fred agreed with an enthusiastic nod.

"Although it sucks we wont be able to spend time with our favorite siblings." George said.

"Yeah," Fred agreed. Both brothers stood up at the same time. "See ya Harry, Hermione, Ginny." He waved at each of them.

"Hey we might even miss Ron too." George added as the two brothers made their way to the door.

"Yeah, maybe if he stops being such a turd." And with that the two twins exited the room leaving the others in silence.

Harry broke the silence with a chuckle. "I guess nothing ever phases those two."

Ron also chuckled, "Yeah, those two sure are something.

Ginny laughed. "They were pretty calm considering they know that they will have to face mum eventually."

"Speaking of which," Ron said, getting up, "I think I'll try and get to bed before mum has the chance to yell at me."

"That sounds like a good idea, brother," Ginny said, also standing up. "Night Harry. Night Hermione."

"Night."

"Good night Ginny."

Ron also bade Harry and Hermione a good night and left with his sister. Then, Hermione gave Harry a good night hug and walked out the door. Just as she steeped out of the room she stopped, picked something off the ground and brought it back to Harry with a smile.

"It looks like our operative has returned to home base," she said, holding a small snake in her hand. Harry's snake.

"Well, well," Harry said with a smile, taking the snake from Hermione, "it looks like you turned out to be lees annoying and more helpful that I thought you would be."

Danny spoke back to him, "That is good to know, Master Harry. But, would you be so kind and remove this contraption from my body?"

Harry nodded and took the magical receiver from around the snake's body. Once that was done he looked up at Hermione who still stood in front of him. She looked at him with a strange expression on her face.

"What?" he inquired.

"It's just weird," she said, her eyes on the snake in Harry's hand. Harry just shrugged and set his snake on the floor.

"English. Parselmouth. I can't really tell the difference."

Hermione nodded, told Harry good night once more and left his room. Finally alone, Harry got out of his clothes and put on his pajamas. He turned off the lamp that keep his room illuminated and crawled into bed with a last good night to Danny the snake. He was asleep in minutes with a smile on his face.

And that night, he dreamt. Not of Dark Wizards and death, but of snakes and magnificent golden lights.

* * *

**Next time on Harry Potter and the Book of Homunculus:** Training continues and Harry hasa meaningful chat with Remus. Time flies by and Harry's birthday comes up. That means OWL results! And a tripto Diagon Alley lets Harry know just how much the Wizarding World is changing. 

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	6. Flashes of Gold

**Disclaimer: **If your recognize it from any of the books, it belongs to JKR and her publishers, not me.

**Authors Note: **This chapter is dedicated to **FairyQilan **for reviewing the chapter five. I would also like to thank **Curse of Immortality **for adding this story to their C2 _Story Favs_; **mufty, Tessa Kitsune, and Wildebeast **for adding this story to their favorites list; and **Argentum, Drakkensul, FaryQilan, **and **Kinvor **for adding this story to their alert list. Thank you all. Anything you do that shows me that you are interested in my story encourages me.

**Chapter 6: Flashes of Gold**

It was evening. The sun was just setting in the magnificent rolling hills that Dumbledore's house over looked. It was a beautiful sight to behold, and one young man was too busy to watch it. His mind was somewhere else, his thoughts were too many. At the moment, he was alone but that was about to change. The door to the backyard opened and snapped the young man from his thoughts.

An older man walked out to join him, his hair was silver with a few brown streaks in between, his face was tired as if he had been awake for a week, but his eyes seemed to hold some happiness in them.

"Hello Harry," Remus Lupin said to the dark haired youth.

Harry stood up quickly from where he had sat. "Remus?" He asked his old professor, "What are you doing here?"

"Nice you see you too, Harry," Remus replied, offering his hand to the boy. Harry shook the older mans hand but still seemed shocked.

"Sorry," Harry apologized, letting go of Remus' hand, "It's just been a while."

"Yes, it has been." Remus agreed, taking a seat.

"So," Harry began, also taking a seat, "What are you doing here?"

Remus chuckled, "Molly and Arthur invited me over for dinner."

"Ah, I see," Harry said, a brief silence, then, "What have you been up to?" In truth, Harry already knew that Remus was doing Order business, but he wasn't exactly sure what. Hermione had guessed that he was trying to convince the werewolves not to join Voldemort like Hagrid had done with the giants, but he still wasn't sure.

"Order business," Remus said with a smirk, "Of course, that's none of your business."

"Of course," Harry agreed with a small smile.

A beat of silence.

"Dumbledore told me what you tried to do." Remus said casually.

"Did he now?" Harry asked just as casually.

"Yep," Remus nodded, "said he was very disappointed in you and the others."

"Mmmm," Harry hummed.

"You know," Remus continued, "I'm sure your father would have been disappointed in you too." Harry looked towards the older man with a questioning look. Remus leaned close to Harry and whispered with a grin, "Because you got caught."

Harry grinned wide, "Yeah, I guess I didn't do too well, did I?" He said, even though he knew that he had actually succeeded in his 'mission' the other night.

The two once again shared a friendly silence for a few moments. Then Remus spoke again, "Your birthday is coming up, isn't it?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah."

"Well, what are you planning on doing," Remus asked.

Harry shrugged. "I don't know. Usually I don't do anything for my birthday."

"Usually you have to spend you birthday with those horrible relatives or yours," Remus pointed out, the look on his face showed exactly what he thought of Harry's relatives, "Now that you're with friends you should have a real party."

"A party?" Harry questioned, "Sure, It doesn't really-"

"Nonsense," Remus said, waving off Harry's comment, "A party is just the thing you need. I'll talk about it with Molly."

"Whatever," Harry shrugged.

Another lapse of silence.

"Oh right," Remus said, suddenly as if just remembering something. "How's your training been going?"

"It's been tough," Harry said truthfully, "But it's been helpful too. Today was easier that others because Hermione has to get used to Kingsley and Mad-Eye's regiment. Apparently she had it easy with Tonks."

Suddenly, Remus was smirking. "Speaking of Tonks," He said offhandedly, "I heard the two of you had quite a moment this morning."

Harry's face was flushed red in an instant, "Aww, who told you about that?" He groaned, hiding his face in his hands.

"Who _didn't _tell me about that?" Remus laughed, "It was practically the first thing I heard when I walked in the house."

"Ugh," Harry groaned again, "It was a total accident."

"That's not what I heard," Remus said teasingly.

"And what exactly did you hear?" Harry asked lifting his red face out of his hands.

"Tell me your side of the story first," Remus said.

"Do I have to?" Harry groaned.

"If you want the jokes to spot."

"What jokes?" Harry asked in confusion.

"Just tell the story!" Remus ordered.

"All right," Harry said before beginning, "There I was, practice dueling with Tonks…"

---HPatBoH---

_Harry rolled right to dodge the stunner Tonks had reflected at him. He stood back up quickly and faced her with wand held out. They stood with only about five feet between the tips of their wands; very close quarters for a wizards duel. It had been quite a duel so far. Despite her clumsiness in everyday activities Tonks could duel quite well, although she had mainly resorted to defending against Harry and not attacking him. _

_Tonks stared at him with her purple eyes glinting in excitement; her violently red hair blew slightly in the wind. Harry's grip on his wand tightened and as quick as he could he fired two spells._

"_Stupefy!" "Expelliarmus!"_

_Even at such close quarters Tonks was able to cast a Repelling Charm and reflect both back at Harry. He cursed under his breath and-thinking quickly- tossed himself forward into a roll. Both spell zoomed over his back and barley missed him. He hit the ground and rolled forward, an excellent dodge. Unfortunately, he didn't calculate the fact that he and Tonks were so close together, and as a result when he sprung up form his roll, he and Tonks were practically nose-to-nose._

_Surprised by their proximity, Harry stumbled forward and-with a bit of momentum left from his roll- collapsed into Tonks, sending both of them to the ground knocking heads along the way. The next thing Harry knew he was on the ground and Tonks was underneath him. _

_This was embarrassing enough, but it was going to get worse._

_Harry was a bit dazed from his bump to the head and he had lost both his glasses and his wand. He slowly pushed himself up; his left hand was on the hard ground, but his right hand landed on something softer and rounder, but still firm._

"_My, My, Harry," Tonks spoke from underneath him. "You're being quite bold."_

_There was snickering in the background._

_Harry looked at Tonks with a questioning look. He had to squint to see her clearly. She had a wide, toothy smile on her face and her eyes sparkled in amusement. And if he wasn't mistaken, there was a very faint blush on her cheeks. Suddenly, her eyes darted downward. Harry followed her line of sight and say that she was looking at Harry's hand, his hand that was covering her breast._

_Harry suddenly threw himself off of her and immediately began stumbling through an apology with a mad blush._

_Then the laughing started. Everyone laughed at him, even Kingsley and Moody. And Harry's blush deepened._

"_What's the matter, Harry?" Tonks asked around a mouthful of laughter, "Never dueled with a woman before?"_

_And the laughing continued._

_---HPatBoH---_

"… And that's what happened." Harry finished.

Remus seemed to be trying very hard to contain his laughter. His face was red with the effort.

"Well," He managed to say, "That's a much different version than I heard."

"And what is it that you heard?" Harry asked.

Remus looked to be in thought, "I can't remember exactly, but there was something about lustful gazes and I believe Tonks used the word 'glomp'."

"UGGGHH," Harry groaned.

Remus slapped a hand on his shoulder, "Don't worry. I'm sure everyone will have forgotten in a few days."

"I hope so," He muttered. He looked up when the door opened and was met with the sight of Tonk's heart shaped face.

"Dinner time, loverboy," she cooed, causing Harry to blush and Remus to laugh. She then walked back into the house. Harry stood up and was about to follow her but stopped when he saw Remus wasn't coming.

"You coming?" Harry asked him.

"Yeah, Give me a minute." Harry shrugged and left without asking questions.

Remus watched the young boy leave and couldn't help but smile. He had been worried about talking to Harry, worried that it would be awkward or overly emotional. He knew Harry had some issues to talk out and as his parent's oldest friend Remus knew it was his job to help Harry through his problems.

But, Remus had never made a good father figure.

He had planned on talking to Harry about Sirius after breaking the ice with some normal conversation, but Harry was happy at the moment and he didn't need to talk about Sirius. Sure, it would have to happen eventually, that was a given. And, Remus was planning to be there when Harry wanted to open up about Sirius. But, for now it would be best to let Harry solve his emotional problems the way he wanted, alone.

With a small smile the old werewolf got up and entered the house. On his way to the dining room he could hear Tonks telling everyone her own version of the story that Harry had told earlier. She seemed to be telling it very loudly.

---HPatBoH---

The days went on and the weeks passed and the young heroes continued their training. Their bodies were being changed and their skills were improving. But still, the weeks passed with out great excitement. OWL results came in and everyone was mostly satisfied with their results.

Harry received an A in Astronomy, an E in Care of Magical Creatures, an O in Charms, an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts, a P in Divination, an E in Herbology, a D in History of Magic, an A in Potions, and an E in Transfiguration.

Ron got an A in Astronomy, an A in Care of Magical Creatures, an E in Charms, an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts, a D in Divination, an A in Herbology, a T in History of Magic, an P in Potions, and an A in Transfiguration.

Hermione, not surprisingly, got an O in Ancient Runes, an O in Arithmancy, an E in Astronomy, an O in Care of Magical Creatures, an O in Charms, an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts, an O in Herbology, an O in History of Magic, an O in Potions, and an O in Transfiguration.

Harry was mostly happy with his scores, although he was disappointed that he didn't make an O in potions since that meant he wouldn't be able to take NEWT level, which was required to become an Auror. Ron was very happy with his scores and couldn't believe he actually go an O in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione somehow managed to be upset that she had gotten 'only' an E in Astronomy. Harry and Ron tried to tell her it was because she was distracted by seeing her head of house attacked, but she wouldn't listen to reason. The two boys figured she would have been disappointed with all O's anyways.

But, the night we return to our heroes has nothing to do with OWL results. This night was a special occasion; this night was Harry Potter's birthday.

Everyone was in the dining room. Harry sat at the end of the table surrounded by friends, acquaintances, and random Order members who had just wanted to celebrate the Boy-Who-Lived's birthdays. The table was loaded down with delicious food that had been cooked by Mrs. Weasley with a helping-although unwanted-hand from Tonks.

At the moment, it was time for Harry to open his presents and he was having a hard time deciding which one to open first. Eventually his first choice became obvious as two certain redheads, who had been let into the house for a special occasion, shoved a badly wrapped package into his hands.

With an easy smile, Harry tore through the wrapping paper to reveal a leather jacket similar to the ones the twins were wearing.

"Um…wow," Was all Harry could say. In all truthfulness, wasn't that bad. It was a dark green color; just a few shades darker than his eyes. The material was smooth and wasn't heavy. It was definitely better looking than the vibrant, multi-colored ones the twins wore.

"Whoa," Ron exclaimed, snatching the jacket from Harry's hands, "How come you two never get me anything this nice for my birthday?" He asked his two older brothers.

Fred blew him off with a wave of his hand, "Ron when do we ever buy you _anything _for your birthday?" Ron didn't answer, he just grumbled and passed the jacket over to Ginny who had been requesting to look at it.

George slung his arm around Harry's shoulder. "You like your present, right?"

"Definitely," Harry answered truthfully, "It's really cool and…well, not what I would expect from you two."

"Oh don't worry," Fred joined the conversation. He leaned in close to Harry and whispered, "We managed to sneak a special present into your trunk." he gave Harry a mischievous grin.

"_Special_?" Harry asked suspiciously, "How special? Because if it explodes my trunk…"

"Harry!" George said in shock, "We would never do that…"

Harry gave him a skeptical look.

"_To you_." Fred added, "We would never do that to you."

Harry smiled a little.

"Wow George," Hermione spoke aloud from her place at the table, "This looks like authentic dragon hide. It must've been expensive."

George shrugged as if it didn't matter, "It was a little expensive but we didn't mind since it was for our little Harry."

Harry once again turned towards the twins. "Expensive?" He asked in a whisper, "You guys didn't spend too much, did you?"

"Don't worry about it Harry," Fred whispered in answer, "It wasn't even half of what you gave us."

Harry tried to speak again, but someone spoke over him.

"Fred?" Remus began as he, too, examined the jacket, "Is this spell repellant?"

Fred shrugged, "It is made from dragon hide, so it should be."

"Hey," Shouted a purple haired Tonks, "Get on with the present opening."

"Oh," Harry said. He glanced at all the presents and tried once again to decide which one to pick. There was a collective groan from the people surrounding Harry.

"Here," Kingsley said, tossing a small something into Harry's lap. It was a small piece of leatherwork. It had a place into which you could slide a thin, cylindrical object. There were many types of straps connected to it. "A wand holster," Kingsley explained, he looked at the rest of his students, "I got one for all four of you, but decided to give Harry his tonight."

"Neat," Harry said as he examined the holster. He took his wand out of his belt loop and put it inside the holster. After that he stared at it, not sure what to do.

"Here, I'll show you," Kingsley said as he took the holster from Harry's hand and expertly fastened it around his left forearm. It was smooth and unobtrusive to his skin.

"Thanks," Harry said, admiring it. Kingsley just nodded.

"Here, lad," Moody said, tossing him a silver object, "Might as well take my present too."

Harry looked at the object, surprised. He hadn't expected to get anything from Moody. In fact, he hadn't even noticed the old auror was there. Harry examined the present. It was a silver flask with his name engraved on it.

"Uh, Thanks Mad-Eye," Harry said uneasily.

"No problem, kid," He grunted in response, "I see the way you kids are always drinkin' who knows what, not even thinking of checking it for poison. Like I always say: CON-"

"OK Moody," Tonks cut him off with a roll of her eyes, "We all know what you say."

"Then how come none of you kids listen to a thing I say?" He asked harshly.

Tonks smirked, "Because we don't think the grass is going to kill us."

Moody glared at her and went back to his business of muttering under his breath about assassins hidden among the leaves.

"Here, Harry Dear," Mrs. Weasley said kindly as she handed him a present, "This is from all of us. Bill, Charlie and Arthur wanted to be here, but they are busy with work."

"I understand," Harry said with a nod. He took the beautifully wrapped present and opened it. Many few objects were inside. First of all a box filled with various types of chocolates. Second, there was a necklace that had a dragon fang attached to it that Harry logically assumed was from Charlie. Mrs. Weasley gave that present a look. A book on ancient magical Egypt, most likely from Bill. And finally, a Weasley Jumper with an 'H' on it.

"I noticed you were out growing you old one," Mrs. Weasley explained when he examined the jumper in his hands.

"Thank you, Mrs. Weasley." Harry said.

"You are very welcome," She replied warmly, giving Harry a motherly hug. Harry put that gift aside and almost immediately had someone throw another one at him.

"I'll save you the trouble of trying to chose another one." Ron said with a grin. Harry also grinned and ripped through the badly done wrapping paper. His present was reveled to be a pair of Quidditch gloves.

"Thanks mate," Harry said, "My old ones were getting a bit small."

"Yeah, I figured so," Ron replied, "Those are some top of the line Quidditch gloves. Catching the snitch is going to be easier than ever with those on."

Harry let out a low whistle, "Wicked," He said. Ron gave him a strange look that nobody noticed. Harry set his gloves aside and had another present pushed toward him, this time from Remus.

"Here you go," the old werewolf said, "It might be a bit strange, but I hope you like it." Harry took the box and opened it. He was surprised by what he found. Inside was a very beautiful dagger. All together it had to measure around a foot in length, the blade itself made up about eight inches. The blade was a standard double-edged affair, but the hilt was what made it beautiful. It was masterfully engrave with four images. At the top was the image of a wolf, which was facing toward the base of the blade and barring its teeth. The next image was a dog that starred forward with a serene look on its face. The third image was of a full-bodied stag that wrapped all the way around the hilt. The fourth and final image was of a simple lily flower.

"Wow…" Was all Harry could say. The room had gone quiet. Mrs. Weasley was giving the dagger a disapproving look, but neither Harry nor Remus cared.

"I had it hand crafted," Remus explained, "Well, it was actually supposed to be a gift from both Sirius and Me, but…you know…"

Harry just nodded.

"You like it, right?" Remus asked hesitantly.

Harry nodded, "It's amazing. These engravings…"

"Yeah, I figured you'd like that." Remus reached into the box of the dagger and pulled out a few things. "It's got two sheaths," he began explaining, showing both items to Harry. "One to can strap to you arm or leg and another you can put on you belt. There's also this-" He gave Harry a piece of parchment, "it explains all the enchantments and things the dagger has on it."

Harry took the list and looked over it. It had spell to prevent rest and smudging and it also had a spell that guaranteed sharpness for at least fifty years. Also, just like the knife Sirius had once given him, the dagger could be used to get through many locks. There were also many other things on the list, basic things that guaranteed the condition of the dagger.

"Wow," Was all Harry could say once again.

Remus chuckled and gave Harry a one armed hug. "You're welcome Harry."

Harry passed the dagger to his friends who wanted to take a closer look at it. He opened his present from Hermione, which was a book on Apparition. He also opened his present form Ginny, which was a book on seeker techniques.

"Not that you need them, of course." Ginny said in a slightly bashful tone.

Finally, there was only on gif left, and it was from Tonks. "Here, Loverboy," She said, using the nickname that had developed over the weeks. She tossed him a small box. Harry went to catch it but he missed and if fell on the floor on account of Tonks' bad throw. He got on all fours and began looking for the box. Tonks walked over to him.

"Found it?" She asked.

Harry had found it, although he didn't recognize it for what it was. He got up on one knee and held the box in his had. Tonks smirked at him and the people around snickered. He looked at the smirking metamorphmagus with a perplexed look.

"You just can't get over me, can you, Loverboy?" She asked with a pointed look at the box in his hand.

The ring box.

Harry quickly put it together and realized why people were laughing. He shot up off the floor and tried to pretend nothing happened, but there was still laughter around the room and he went red.

As the laughter died down, Tonks told Harry to open the box. He did and inside he found a simple silver ring with a paw print on engraved on it.

"Saw it in Diagon Alley and thought you might like it." The purple haired auror explained.

"It's great Tonks. Thanks." Harry said.

"No problem, kid." She smiled and walked off towards her seat at the table and Harry also sat back down.

He was still blushing.

"Well," Mrs. Weasley announced to the room, "That's all for tonight. Thank you all for coming." People got up and cleared out of the room, some of them whishing Harry a happy birthday on the way out. Soon the room was cleared of everyone except Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. "All right kids. It's time for bed, we have to get up early to go to Diagon Alley."

"Early?" Ron groaned, "Why early?"

"Because all four of you need new robes," Mrs. Weasley explained as she ushered the teenagers out the door and towards their rooms. "And that will take a couple of hours."

Ron groaned again but didn't say anything. When they reached the bedrooms they all told each other good night and they each headed into their respective rooms. When Harry got to his trunk to pull out his pajamas there was a brightly wrapped package on top of all of his stuff.

"Of right," Harry spoke to himself, "The present from Fred and George." He unwrapped the present to find what look like a pair of orange omnioculars. Attached to them was a note.

_New from the brilliant minds of Fred and George Weasley, the Spy-O-Noculars. These babies can do everything. X-Ray Vision? Check. Night vision? Check. Heat Vision? Check. Meat vision? Not yet, but we're working on it. So enjoy, partner, you're the first and only person to have these. They aren't even for sale in our store (due to problems with the law and other such nonsense)!_

_Sincerely,_

_Gred and Forge_

_PS: These DO NOT EXPLODE! … Or at least they shouldn't._

Harry examined the Spy-O-Noculars. The design was very similar to the Omnioculars, but there were a few special colored dials and buttons for the special modifications Fred and George had made. There was a small manual that came with the Spy-O-Noculars. As the original not had said, they had X-Ray vision, Night Vision and Heat Vision. There was also a lip-reading button and button that made them look like a normal pair of Omnioculars.

"Wow!" Harry muttered to himself. He went to his window and looked outside. All he could see was darkness. He put the Spy-O-Noculars up to his eyes and adjusted the night vision dial and could see as clear as day. "…Wow!"

Deciding that he would play with them some more later, Harry put the Spy-O-Noculars back in his trunk and put on his pajamas. He then put out the lamp and fell asleep with a happy smile.

---HPatBoH---

Just as promised, Harry was woken up in the early morning by Mrs. Weasley. Harry slowly pried himself out of his bed and got up. He picked Danny off the floor and woke him up too, for no other reason except for making the snake suffer the early morning along with him. He groggily made his way to the door, stumbling twice as Danny protested all the way to the kitchen.

"Master Harry," he hissed/whined, "Why did you wake me? I was sleeping."

"I know," Harry answered the snake. As always, he couldn't tell if he had spoken Parselmouth or English, but he didn't care.

"Then why did you wake me? Surely you can do whatever it is you need to do without me?" The snake said.

"I figured you shouldn't be the only one allowed to sleep in. Plus, you're always bugging me with questions about Humans, now I'm going to take you to a place with loads of humans."

Harry walked into the kitchen and didn't hear the snake's response. It wasn't loud in the kitchen, Harry just stopped paying attention. The kitchen was actually the opposite of loud. The only noise that could be heard was the clinking of fork against plates. Harry made his way to a seat next to Ron and was given a plate of bacon and eggs by Mrs. Weasley.

"Morning Ron," Harry greeted Ron. The red head didn't respond. In face, he seemed to be snoring. Harry glanced around the table and saw that no one seemed to be interested in talking. Ginny, just like her brother, seemed to be sleeping and Hermione looked like she was barley awake enough to lift her fork up to her mouth. So, Harry lethargically ate his breakfast and then made his way back upstairs. Once back in his room, he changed into some plain clothes and a black robe-which was getting too small for him as Mrs. Weasley had said.

As he was closing his trunk, he noticed his birthday presents. He eyed them all and thought for a moment. With a grin, he pulled off his robe and replaced it with the Dark green, dragon hide jacked Fred and George had given him. He got out the ring Tonks had given him and the Necklace from Charlie and put both of those on also. The last thing he put on was his blade; he lifted his pant leg and used the sheath to strap it there. His wand was already sheathed on his left forearm and he let Danny curl around his right one.

He felt kind of weird wearing so much new clothes, but he liked it. He walked out his door and was meet by Ron, who gave him a critical look.

Harry grinned, "Figured I'd try out a few of my new gifts." He explained.

"Obviously," Ron said with his own grin, "But mum is going to go crazy when she see you in that jacked and with that necklace on."

"At least I haven't been growing my hair out." Harry mused.

Ron laughed as they made their way down stairs. "Yeah, She would faint at the sight of you with long hair." The two friends continued to laugh as the made their way downstairs. They arrived downstairs and met Mrs. Weasley, Ginny and Hermione. Hermione complimented Harry on his apparel, Mrs. Weasley gave him a _look, _and Ginny developed a slight blush that went unnoticed by all.

"Here," Mrs. Weasley said, holding out an ordinary look stick, "We've managed to get a Portkey arranged for 8:45. We barely have a few minutes left."

The four teens gripped the stick and waited for a few silent moments. Then, they all felt the familiar tug behind their navel and were gone in a spiraling whirl of Portkey travel.

---HPatBoH---

As the world stopped spinning, Harry found himself in a windowless room with blank, white walls. In each corner of the room was a fierce look wizard with a wand pointed towards the center of the room, towards Harry and the others. Harry immediately made to put his hand on his wand, but Ron stayed his hand.

"Easy, mate." Ron muttered out the corner of his mouth, "Everything is fine." Harry looked forward and saw that there was a table with a bored looking wizards sitting at it.

The wizard yawned, "Name?" He asked monotonously.

"Weasley, party of five." Mrs. Weasley answered him.

"Portkey information?"

"Portkey number 5955, registered by Arthur Weasley for 8:45."

"Your business?"

"Purchasing school supplies."

The wizard nodded and checked off a few things on a piece of parchment. He reached under his desk and pulled out five tickets, he stamped each of them and gave them to Mrs. Weasley.

"Please enjoy your stay in Diagon Alley, you may continue." He said, entirely without enthusiasm. Mrs. Weasley turned and walked through the door, the teens followed. Before exiting the room, Harry took one last look at the guards, they hadn't moved once since he had been in there.

Outside the room, Harry noticed that his surrounding were familiar, he was now in a hallway in the Leaky Cauldron.

"What was that about?" Harry asked.

"Increased security," Ron began to explain as the small group began to traverse through the surprisingly empty hallway," The ministry is getting really tight with travel. You used to be able to get a special permit to make a portkey whenever you need them, but now they've made it were you can only get portkey by going through the Ministry and then there are a lot of questions and forms. And as you saw back there they have men at each portkey station and they make sure you use an authorized portkey. Those four blokes with the wands surprised me though, didn't think it was that serious."

Harry chuckled half-heartedly, "Yeah, they surprised me a little as well."

"A little?" Ron laughed," You were about to start throwing curses."

"Didn't you read about the new security in _The Prophet_, Harry?" Hermione asked as they approached the door to the entrance of Diagon Alley.

"No," Harry answered, "I stopped my subscription." They finally reached the door outside and passed a grizzly old man who seemed to be sleeping. Mrs. Weasley opened the door and they walked out into an unexpected scene. Instead of the usual brick wall with trashcan and other assorted garbage, there was a security gate with a few tough looking wizards in official robes.

"Tickets?" One of them immediately demanded. Mrs. Weasley gave him the tickets without delay. The wizard checked each of the tickets then stamped them and gave them back. "Wands?" he asked, this time a bit less forcefully. Each one of them gave up their wands to be checked over by a strange golden rod. Once their wands were returned to them without a word, one of the official-looking wizards walked up to the gate and inserted his wand into a keyhole, of sorts. The gate clicked and the small entourage was allowed entrance into the alley.

"Whoa," Harry began, "This is…"

"Different," Hermione finished for him. Harry could only nod in agreement

The alley was bare, practically empty. From the entrance, Harry could count maybe thirty or so people, which was nothing compared to the usual bustling crowds that kept the alley jam-packed. Instead of walking and talking freely like they once had, the few shoppers in the alley only spoke to the others in their group and scurried along quickly from store to store, as if afraid that there was something in the alley that would get them if they didn't hurry.

Mrs. Weasley began walking down the alley, "No one wants to leave their houses anymore. They're afraid of being attacked."

Harry nodded in understanding as he followed the matriarch of the Weasley family. He hadn't been reading _The Prophet_, but various Order members who made stops at HQ were always talking about the various attacks that had be made by Voldemorts forces. They talked about how scared everyone was. But, Harry wasn't scared, if anything, the news of the attacks made him more brave. It made him want to train harder. It made him want to walk down this alley alone, displaying no fear whatsoever, as a message to Lord Voldemort and his supporters.

As the group traversed the alley, Harry stood up his straightest and walked with as much confidence as he could muster. He chatted loudly with his friends and laughed a lot, trying his hardest to make it look like a normal trip to the alley, despite the looks from all the other shoppers he was getting. He wanted to show them how not scared he was, and hopefully, they would follow his lead.

The group continued to walk the alley, making their way towards Madame Malkins Robe Shop. On the way there though, the youngest of the group were distracted by a certain bright orange store. All four of the teens stopped to stare at the store. Three of them in particular had looks of wanting on their face, while the fourth was just looking mildly interested. Mrs. Weasley continued walking down the alley, unaware that the rest of her party had stopped. It only took the seasoned mother a few seconds to realize that all the teens weren't with her.

She turned and rolled her eyes when she was the reason the teens had stopped. "Keep up children," She called to them, "We can visit them later." The four teens reluctantly pulled themselves away from the eccentric storefront of Weasley Wizard Wheezes and continued following the older woman.

They mad it to Gringotts with no other incidents or distractions. They went through the usual transactions and made the trip to their respective vault, surprisingly there were no other heightened security measures at the bank. As usual, Harry grabbed a handful of coins and dumped them in his bag without worrying about it. Hermione exchanged some muggle money for galleons and they left Gringotts.

Once back in the alley, they first went to Madame Malkins and got measure up for some robes. Madame Malkins told them that it wouldn't take as long as Mrs. Weasley had predicted for the robes to be made since there wasn't much business in the alley. After that, they progressed their way through the alley, making stops in the shops they need to. They brought their books and potions supplies and anything else for life at Hogwarts. They also made a stop in the Magical Menagerie. Ron and Harry bought some Owl Treats, and Harry also bought a cage for Danny to sleep in. The snake was so ecstatic that Harry decided to let the Snake stay in his new cage for the rest of the trip.

As they finished their mundane shopping, they arrived at the bright orange and neon green store from before. All four teens, even Hermione, walked into the store with grins.

Walking into Weasley Wizard Wheezes was like walking into an explosion of bright light, funny sounds, and crude drawings of certain snake-faced dark lords. The store was the most packed of all the ones Harry had seen all day. People freely laughed and talked and randomly turned into birds. All without any sigh of the fear that they showed in the street.

"Well, if it isn't our favorite people in the whole world." George called from the front counter, where he had just finished ringing up a sale.

"And Ron! You're here too!" Fred added as he stepped out from a room in the back and wiped a mysterious substance from his hands.

"Hardy har har," Ron laughed sarcastically as the group walked up to the counter.

"So, what brings you here?" Fred asked.

"We're purchasing school supplies of course." Mrs. Weasley answered. She paused as a firecracker went off randomly. "We still have sometime until the robes are ready."

"Oh, well feel free to look around," George said, he leaned in with a conspiratorial wink and continued with a whisper. "We may even give you a family discount."

With a possibility of a discount, Ron dashed off and began examining the shelves excitedly. Hermione and Ginny followed him, albeit at a much less excited pace. Mrs. Weasley also went, muttering something under her breath that Harry didn't catch. He made to follow his friends, but was pulled back by Fred (or George).

"So, what's it like to see the fruits of your labor?" Fred asked.

Harry raised an eyebrow, "The fruits of my labor? I didn't do any of this."

"Yeah," George nodded, "but none of this would be here without you."

"Which is why we've decided you can have whatever you want for free!"

Harry gaped at the two grinning twins, "For free? No way. You guys gave me this cool jacket, you made me partner, and you gave me those _Spy-O-Noculars_. Don't you think you've repaid me enough?"

Fred sighed, "My, he is a stubborn one, isn't he brother?"

George nodded, looking playfully serious, "Yes he is." George agreed with a nod, "Perhaps I should explain it to him? You see, Harry, it's always been our dream to open a joke shop ever since we were old enough to detach a toilet seat."

"Which was a very young age."

"Opening a joke shop wasn't just something we wanted to do, it was the only thing we wanted to do in our lives. No other job would be good enough to satisfy us."

"Except for maybe being a sex slave to the Holyhead Harpies."

George nodded, "Yes, but once the Harpies kept sending back all those letters we sent them, we knew that a joke shop was our only option. And even that goal was out of reach, due to our lack of money. But, then you came along with you sack of a thousand galleons and just thrust them at us like it had the plague."

"And once extensive testing showed that the money did not have the plague or any other curse on it, we realized that Harry Potter, The Boy-Who-Lived, had given us enough money to live out our dream."

"I don't know if you've ever had a dream come true Harry, but it's one of the best things ever. There's no way to repay you for that."

"And, as sappy as that might sound, it's the truth. And, even though there is no way to repay you, we are sure as hell going to try."

Harry couldn't help but be surprised by the two serious people in front of him.

"Well then," Fred began with an easy smile, "How about a tour?" Harry nodded and was instantly drug by the twins. They pointed out all the objects in the store and explained how they worked. When they noticed that Harry wasn't going to be taking any items, they began forcing items into his pockets. Harry didn't complain. The twins also showed Harry their flat above the shop. It had a living area and bedrooms and bathrooms. All the essential things for two bachelors.

Eventually, it came time for them to leave. They all exited the store and walked out into the alley. It seemed to be even emptier than before.

"Mum, it's not time to get the robes, yet," Ron said to his mother.

"I know," She said simply in response. Ron made a noise of frustration.

"Didn't you get anything?" Harry asked.

"No." Ron answered indignantly.

"Don't worry," Harry said with a smirk, "I've got plenty." He patted his pockets, which were overflowing with various prank objects.

Ron gave Harry a shocked look, "They gave you all of those? I'm their feckin' brother and they didn't give me anything."

"Calm down," Harry told his friend, "It's a uh… _special circumstance. _I'll explain it you later." Harry hadn't told his friends that he had funded the twins, but he would have to tell Ron before he really thought Fred and George liked Harry better than him.

"Special circumstance?" Ron questioned. Harry didn't answer him.

"Here kids," Mrs. Weasley said, "We can get ourselves an ice cream at Flourean Fortescures." Ron forgot all about his question to Harry at the idea of ice cream. Mrs. Weasley bought everyone ice cream and they all sat around and chatted. The ice cream parlor was empty except for a few people at another table. It was an odd party of people. In one seat sat a young woman. Harry couldn't see her face, but she had a slightly tan complexion and wavy black hair. She seemed slightly familiar but Harry couldn't remember who she was. Across from her was a well-dressed wizard with slicked back hair and a thin mustache. Standing around the table were four men dressed in black cloaks with their hoods up. Each man stood at alert, as if expecting an attack of some sort.

Harry watched the other table thoughtfully eating his ice cream. He continued to try and place the girl, but he came up with nothing. It wasn't just the girl that was on Harry's mind, something was distracting him. There was something that was bothering him. He was also starting to fell a bit cool, probably from the ice cream.

"Harry dear, are you alright?" Mrs. Weasley asked him. Harry shook out of his daze.

"Huh? Oh… Yeah, I'm fine," Harry answered numbly. He took another bite of his ice cream and shook with an involuntary shiver, "This ice cream is really cold."

Ginny giggled cutely, "Well, it _is _ice cream." she said.

Harry grinned, "Yeah, I guess so." Suddenly something hit Harry hard in his midsection. Harry immediately stood up from his table.

"I've got to go," He announced to everyone.

"Go where?" Mrs. Weasley asked, looking shocked.

"To the bathroom!" Harry answered quickly. He took off without waiting for his reaction. Harry ran off towards the closest bathroom he knew, Fred and Georges. He threw open the door to their shop and was slightly surprised to see it empty.

"Harry!" George called, "What are you doing back here?"

"You've got a bathroom upstairs, right?"

"Yeah, we-" Harry didn't wait for George to finish. He bolted straight for the stairs and nearly ran over Fred.

"You all right Harry?" Fred shouted after him as he ran up the stairs.

Harry didn't answer, but right as he reached the door to the Twins flat, he called something over his shoulder without thinking, "Why is it so cold in here?"

Not really caring for a response, Harry threw himself into the moderately sized flat and went straight for the open bathroom door. Once he made it in there, he quickly undid his pants and let loose. He stood there for a minute straight, at least. Once he was finished, he zipped his pants back up and washed his hands.

Usually, after relieving themselves as Harry had just done, they would feel better, but Harry was felling worse. There was something at the border of his mind, something that was trying to get in but couldn't. Like an annoying salesman who kept knocking on the door despite the fact that he know he isn't wanted. It was a tiny, almost inaudible buss behind his ear. Plus, the temperature seemed to be decreasing even though it was a mid-summer day.

Harry walked out the bathroom and made his way back to the stairs. That's when it really hit him the scream entered his mind and echoed off his skull. He dropped to his knees as the chill in the air intensified. A look of horror formed on his face, as he knew what was coming.

"_Please! Not Harry!"_

"D-De-Dementors," Harry stuttered to himself. He struggled to stand back up, but the wailing voice in his head forced him back to his knees. The screams were horrible. The voice of his mother pleading for his life and Voldemort not showing any remorse. Then the curse would be shouted and his mothers crying would end.

Then it started all over again.

Harry focused all of his power on ignoring his mother's long dead cries and stood up again. His name continued to be called, but this time it was outside of his head.

"Harry!" Fred shouted as he thundered up the stairs. "Harry! We've got to get out of here!" Fred threw himself through the door to his flat and saw Harry standing on wobbly legs. Fred was paler that usual and his eye were wide and fearful, but Harry looked just as bad. Without asking or explaining anything, Fred grabbed Harry and took him back down the stairs quickly. Fred had to practically drag Harry down the stairs and as they reached the center of the shop, Harry tripped.

He was getting weaker as he got closer to the Dementors outside. The screams were everywhere and Harry could no longer tell what was in his mind and what wasn't.

Fred pulled Harry back up and popped a piece of chocolate in his mouth without saying anything. After chewing a swallowing the chocolate, Harry felt better; at least well enough to walk on his own, but before he and Fred left the shop, Harry had another strange sensation. He immediately recognized it for what it was, but it came to fast for him to do anything about it.

There was a crash as two identical brown spells broke through the storefront window and slammed into Harry and Fred, sending them crashing into the back counter.

Harry was dazed as he lied in the floor surrounded by fallen pranks. As he shook the cobwebs out of his head, he heard two pairs of footsteps of crunching on the broken glass. He looked towards Fred, who lied on the ground moaning in pain. Harry had recognized the spell and it affects as the Bludgeoning Jinx. As far as Harry could tell, his Dragon hid jacket had taken the brunt of the spells. Unfortunately, Fred wasn't wearing his jacket and seemed to be suffering from broken bones.

The footsteps got closer.

Harry slowly reached for his wand as scrumptiously as possible. His hand made contact with the handle of his wand and he waited as the footsteps got closer. The footsteps were barely a few feet away and Harry got ready to attack. He was still sore from being hit by the spell, and the dementors-which were apparently outside-were still affecting him, but the adrenaline pumping through his veins gave him and extra edge.

The footsteps stopped right in front of him.

Harry threw himself up into a kneeling position and unsheathed his wand in a startling display of speed. It was wasted, however, because as soon as he had leveled the wand at his first attacker, the second attacker have him a painful kick to the hand that sent his wand flying across the shop. The first attacker then followed up with a kick to his chest that pinned him up against the counter behind him. The foot remained in place and held him still; both attackers had their wands aimed at him.

"Uh, uh, uh, Little Harry," A sickeningly familiar voice mocked him from behind the Death Eater mask, "You wouldn't want to put an eye out, would you?"

The voice filled Harry with rage. He knew it well. It was in his nightmares. It belonged to the one who had killed his godfather.

"Bellatrix!" Harry hissed in anger. Rage pumped through his veins and the crying pleas of his mother were drowned out by the urge to destroy the person in from of him.

"You speak my name with such malice," Bellatrix spoke, still keeping Harry pinned to the counter with surprising strength, "What could I have done to warrant that?"

Harry growled.

"He has a surprising amount of fight in him." The silky voice of Lucius Malfoy drawled from behind the other mask, "I'm surprised he hasn't fainted yet."

Harry snapped his gaze around to the man and noticed for the first time that bother attackers had glowing silver necklaces around their necks.

"Out of prison already, eh Malfoy?" Harry practically snarled at the evil aristocrat, "I'm surprised you lasted this long, a delicate man like your self."

Harry couldn't see the Lucius' face, but he knew that if he could it would be ugly. Without any warning, Lucius cried out "_Crucio_!" The curse hit Harry quickly and he was instantly hit with the sensation of having every one of his nerves being set on fire. The agony seemed to last for an eternity. Eventually, Harry was slumped on the ground and the curse had been ended. Whatever wall he had had against the effect of the Dementor was destroyed and his mothers last moment was replayed in his mind.

He glanced up at his attackers. Bellatrix had taken her hold off and her mask was now on the floor. The look on her face was a look of excitement comparable to a child on Christmas morning.

"That ought to teach you to hold your tongue," Lucius Malfoy spoke," I hare say you've been hanging around those slobs the Weasleys for too long." He cast a disgusted glare towards the now silent and still Fred.

"D-Don't talk to them l-like that," Harry grounded out, holding himself up on his hands and knees.

Lucius chuckled silkily," What? These filth?" He asked, kicked a displaced prank device at Fred's still body. "They're nothing but trash. You should've stayed away from them when you had the chance. Now look where you are, you're trash just like them."

Harry glared at the blonde man. Lucius just smirked smugly. Harry slowly, achingly began to stand up. He faltered once, but still stood up straight and look Lucius in the eyes. His knees wobbled with the effort it took to stand and he knew it would be easier to just lay down and succumb to the pain and torment of the Dementors, but he still stood staring Lucius down with a burning fire in his green eyes.

Harry took one step forward; it was easier than he thought it would be. Bellatrix brought out her wand and leveled it at Harry with an almost lustful look.

"There's no need, Bella." Lucius said, staying the craze witches wand, "What is the weak, unarmed boy going to do to me? Lucius lowered his wand to prove his point. Bellatrix reluctantly lowered her wand. She looked disappointed at not being able to curse Harry.

Harry slowly covered the distance between him and Lucius and practically stood nose-to-nose with him.

"What is it Potter?" Lucius asked with an arrogant smirk. "What is it you're going to do? Defend the rat pack? Going to call me dirty names? What is it?"

Harry's glare intensified, "Don't ever." Harry hissed, "_Ever _talk that way about my family." Lucius didn't have time to be surprised as-with a speed that surprised both of them-Harry raised his fist and slammed it into his face, sending him flying down to the floor.

Bellatrix drew her wand to cures Harry, but just as the incantation left her lips Harry threw himself to the ground and rolled to the side in an impressive dodge. Coming out of his role, Harry scooped up his wand off the floor and brought it up to Bellatrix, who now had her wand trained on him.

They both locked eyes. Harry's burning with a green fire and Bellatrix's crazy and wild. They stared each other down, Harry kneeling with a set expression of anger and Bellatrix standing with an insane smile on her face. Everything was still, the…

A twitch of movement.

"_Everbero!"_

"_Exuste!_

Both duelers launched their spells at the same time. The spells are through the air quickly and collided at the mid-point between the two duelers.

BANG!

The spells ricocheted off each other, one went flying into the ceiling and the other went into the floor. Both impacted areas exploded in a cloud of dust and debris that settled in between Harry and Bellatrix.

Unnoticed by the two duelers, Lucius Malfoy slowly sat up holding a hand to his bleeding and bruised face. As he began to lift himself off the floor, a piece of wood from the ceiling hit him in the head and knocked him out.

Meanwhile, on a spur of the moment plan of action, Harry traded his wand into his left hand and reached down and grabbed his dagger by its hilt. He unsheathed the weapon with a quick -CHIIING- and, without a thought for consequences, jumped through the cloud of dust with his dagger raised over his head and his mouth opened in a primal war cry.

Bellatrix stood surprised as Harry emerged through the dust and debris. She tried to get off a spell, but Harry was upon her before the first syllable of the incantation. Harry brought his dagger down and planted it firmly Bellatrix's shoulder blade and clavicle bone.

The female Death Eater had a look of surprise on her face as her crimson life leaked from the wound and onto her black robes. But then, her smile slowly reformed. Harry felt a pinpoint pressure in his abdomen. He looked down and saw Bellatrixs wand.

"What now?" She asked in a sadistic, breathy voice. She didn't seem to fell any pain.

Harry ground his teeth and locked his eyes with the women again. Bellatrix smirked and pressed her harder into Harry's abdomen. She opened her mouth to say something but stopped.

"I can't die here." Harry whispered in a dangerous tone, "If I die here, my friends die here. And I can not let that happen!" His eyes flashed with a strange flash of gold.

And then, Harry did something that else that shocked the Death Eater, he hissed at her something that even he didn't recognize. "_Ssssnnnnk Bytzzz!"_ The dagger embedded into Bellatrixs shoulder glowed with a sick brown aura. The brown aura seeped down into Bellatrixs wound and the witch's eyes widened and her pupils dilated. Her skin instantly began to pale and her grip on her wand loosened, causing the held object to fall to the ground.

"W-Wh-What is th-this?" She asked weakly, "P-P-P-Poi-?"

"This," Harry interrupted her with a voice full of power and hate, "_This_ is my righteous anger."

Bellatrix gasped weakly as Harry's eyes flashed gold again. Then, with a shuddering sigh, the woman collapsed and Harry puller has dagger from her shoulder. He looked down at the woman with his bloody dagger in one hand and his wand in the other. He checked around the store and saw that Fred and Lucius were still out. Harry looked to the door what led to the alley. Screams could be heard.

He knew what he had to do. Right now, Fred was relatively safe. Harry knew he had to go and make sure that the others were all right, and if anyone had hurt them he would take care of them just as he had taken care of the other tow. Right now, Harry had pure power pumping through his veins. He felt unstoppable and he knew use this new power-whatever it was-to save his friends.

Harry took one step toward the door and stopped.

Something was wrong.

Harry listened intently for any sound, but he couldn't hear anything save for his heart beat. In fact, his hear was beating very loudly and fast. Suddenly his heart stopped beating. His eyes widened and a pain worse that the Cruciatus racked his entire body. He collapsed instantly, his mouth opened for a scream but none came out. There was screaming, though. The force of the dementors hit Harry full force in his sudden weakness and his mother was once again in his mind.

Harry's world was nothing but pain, both physical and mental. He didn't know how long it lasted, but just when thought it wouldn't end, it began to slowly dissipate.

Once the pain had fully left his body, Harry still found himself on the floor wondering what the hell had just happened to him. The Dementor effects still assaulted his mind, but it had lessened some.

Against every will of his body, Harry pushed himself off the floor. It truth, he would have liked to lay down and die, but with his friends still out in the alley he knew that wasn't possible. So, on two shaking legs he walked to the door and nearly collapsed against it. With only a second to ready him, Harry pushed through the door and stumbled out into the alley, only to be knocked into by running person. Both Harry and the running person stumbled to the ground.

"Well, well, look what we have here. Harry Bloody Potter." An unknown voice spoke. Harry looked up to see three death eaters followed by a pack of dementors. The death eaters had their mask on and those strange glowing necklaces. They also didn't seem to be affected by the dementors. Harry was starting to suspect what those necklaces were for.

"And look," Another death eater said, "He's run into our little friend. Can you say two birds with one stone, mates?" All three Death Eaters laughed. Harry looked behind him and saw that the person who ran into him was the girl form before at the ice cream parlor. Her hazel eyes regarded the death eater with absolute fear.

"Hmmm, I wonder where Bella and Lucius are?" One of the death eaters asked out loud. He walked over to the broken store widow and peered in. He drew back in shock. "They've been taken out!"

"What?" The other two exclaimed. They both rushed over and also looked into the store via the broken window.

_Damn! I can't let them revive Lucius and Bellatrix. I'm in enough trouble right now. _Harry thought to himself.

He eyed the glowing necklaces of the three men. If they did what Harry thought, then Harry might need them more than the death eaters.

"_Accio Necklaces!" _

The three death eaters were stopped as their necklaces were violently yanked off their necks by Harry's spell. Each of the men fell to their knees almost instantly. One gripped his head and kept muttering while another actually began sobbing.

Harry glanced away from them and looked at the broken necklaces in his lap. They were of no use to him now.

"Oh no!" The girl from behind him spoke.

Harry looked up and saw that the group of Dementors was moving towards them now. It seemed that now that their handlers were incapacitated they could do whatever they wanted.

Harry tried to stand up, but his muscles didn't want to hold his weight. He struggled to get up once again, but it seemed more unsuccessful than before. Then he heard a scream, a scream that came from outside his own head. He recognized that scream, as he had unfortunately heard it many times. It was Hermione.

"My friends!" Harry exclaimed.

"Your friends?" The girl behind him asked, "I think the death eaters left them to some more dementors."

"No," Harry gasped. He agonizingly pushed himself off the ground and leveled his wand at the incoming hoard of dementors. Then he fell again, but this time he was caught.

"You know the Patronus Charm." It wasn't a question. "Then use it. Save me, us, your friends." Harry looked back at the girl who he still couldn't recognize. She continued to hold him up in her arms as he once again pointed his wands at the incoming dementors. He closed eyes and tried to think of a happy memory.

None came.

"Hurry!" The girl urged him.

The smiling face of his friends flashed in his mind.

_There,_ Harry thought.

He focused on his friends. Their smiling faces and joyful laughs, but it wasn't enough.

"Hurry!" The girl urged him again.

Harry didn't dare open his eyes because he feared seeing how close the dementors were. He tried focusing on his friends again, but now it was harder. Suddenly, an image of Ron being given the kiss flashed in his mind.

_No, no, NO! _Harry thought, _Anything but that! _

"Hurry!" She whispered in his ear, her voice becoming desperate.

George was kissed.

_No!_

Ginny was kissed.

_No! _

The Girl was kissed.

_No! _

Hermione was kissed

_NO!_

"Hurry! Hurry, Hurry, Hurry…." It was a constant chant in his ear.

Mrs. Weasley was kissed.

_NOOOOO! I WON'T LET THAT HAPPEN! I **WILL** PROTECT THEM!_

Harry's eyes snapped open with a flash of gold, they were fierce and determined. He saw that the dementors were nearly right in front of him.

"**HURRY!" **She shrieked in his ear.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM!" _Harry bellowed.

BANG

There was a bright flash of gold that covered everything. It blinded Harry, but he had never felt better. It made him warm and safe protected him. His mother's scream was gone.

As quick as it had come, the gold light dissipated, but there was a literal whirlwind of gold between Harry and the girl and the horde of Dementors. The golden whirlwind swirled and swirled but made no wind. Then, it began to condense and slowly take a form. When it was done it was what Harry had expected. It was the form of a man kneeling down, a slightly familiar man.

The golden patronus man stood up slowly to his height of at least eight feet. He was wearing full battle armor and had a sword sheathed to his back. The large golden patronus man turned and looked at Harry. Harry was shocked by what he saw. The patronus looked like him.

"Holy shit!" The girl, who still supported Harry, said.

Harry couldn't agree more.

The patronus gave the two young people a wink, the faced the dementors again.

Before, the dementors had been staying away from the golden storm, but now that the patronus was fully formed and staring at them, they ran.

The patronus put on a golden-faced grin as it unsheathed the sword from its back, then is a golden streak he charged at the nearest dementor and chopped in in half. Then, it went for the next and chopped it head off. It continued on this way, taking on dementor after dementor with no challenge.

_It's not just driving them away, it's destroying them. _Harry thought.

It was true. Each dementor fell down and burned up in black smoke. Suddenly, there was a strange screaming as a mass of bright white objects flew out of the dementors and into the sky. Harry could only watch in awe.

Once the section of the alley that Harry was in was cleared of dementors, the patronus moved onto the other areas of the alley. Hopefully to save his friends.

As the last of the dementors burned out and the final with objects screamed their way to the sky. Harry felt content. He had done it. He had driven off the dementors and his friends were hopefully okay. All he had to do was go check on them.

He took one step and instantly fell forward.

The pain hit him twice as bad as last time. His muscles were on fire and blood leaked out of his mouth, nose, ears, and eyes. He once again couldn't summon the power to scream. Luckily thought, he didn't have to endure the pain long, as he passed out.

The girl got on her knees to check on him, but he was out cold. She stared around at the ashes that used to be dementors and the damage to Diagon Alley.

"HOLY SHIT!"


End file.
